MANISCH DEPRESSIV - MD original,or bootleg?

Manisch Depressiv - MD (Switzerland - Soilant S 1983) 1983, Zürich, Switzerland

MD has been a pretty chaotic experimental D.I.Y. post punk project by the ex TNT lead guitarist Dani Graessle, and his girlfriend Gigia. It was first issued in 1983 on Christian Tschernitsch's famous Soilant label out of Zürich. A highly sought after record amongst worldwide punk collectors ever since it was included on the Killed By Death - Vol. 7 LP in 1993! One of the ultimate rarest, but unfortunately also most widely faked/bootlegged Swiss punk records!

It's very easy to spot a bootleg! This blog entry was mainly made to help collectors to seperate an ultra rare original, from a worthless faked copy! The record was issued as follows:

1) THE ULTRA RARE ORIGINAL MD FIRST PRESSING SINGLE FROM 1983 (150 - 170 COPIES MADE):

ABOVE: The ultra rare MANISCH DEPRESSIV original Picturesleeve (frontside)

There were only around 150 - 170 copies of the original MD first pressing Single ever made (according to the label owner), but I don't believe that many of them have survived! It was issued with a corrugated cardboard Picturesleeve of the cheapest, lightest, and most fragile brand! Each copy of the cover was handmade, and very nicely hand sprayed by the label owner!

ABOVE: The ultra rare MANISCH DEPRESSIV original cover (backside)

Please note the rare brand of corrugated cardboard that the original PS was made of! This exact type of corrugated cardboard does not seem to be available today anymore.

Another important detail about the original Picturesleeve are the two golden staples that were used to put the cover together.

ABOVE: The orginal cover was put together with two golden staples!

I would be estimating that there are possibly no more than 5 - 7 original copies of this massively rare record in collectors hands world-wide!

2) THE OFFICIAL 2ND ISSUE (Around 350 copies made):

ABOVE: The 2nd issue of the MANISCH DEPRESSIV Single sold sleeveless!

The 2nd issue of the MD Single sold sleeveless after ca. 1984! They were sleeveless leftovers of the first pressing from 1983. It sold poorely because of bad distribution. Most of the copies have stayed unsold, also possibly because there was no sleeve to it!



3) UNOFFICIAL BOOTLEG ISSUE VERSION #1:

ABOVE: A fake bootleg issue as it has sold on eBay for $385

The record in the above picture comes with a worthless faked bootleg cover! You can easily see that the corrugated cardboard does NOT match with the original PS! It is also missing out of the golden staples too (silvery staples were used instead). There's some more faked and not very good made bootleg versions pictured below:

ABOVE: Another worthless faked bootleg issue as it has sold on eBay!

ABOVE: Another clearly faked bootleg issue as pictured on Franck's otherwise pretty amazing Punkdisco.com!

ABOVE: The maker of this bootleg copy tried to fake wear to make it look older! The color looks fairily fresh to my eyes, and also looks like a different, much darker black too! Thanks to Marc Strassenburg for the photo!

All the faked bootleg copies above have got a few things in common: A) They come with the wrong type of corrugated cardbord, B) They come with the wrong type of staples, and C)  The frontcover spraying is missing out of the black border on top!

One can easily see that they don't match with the ultra rare original cover!

I believe that there could possibly be around 20 - 40 fake copies like them around! They were most likely made by several different worldwide collectors. There are some more faked copies out there that were slightly better made than the ones in the pictures, so you better watch out, or else you'll be crying later!

4) UNOFFICIAL LATER BOOTLEG ISSUE VERSION #2:

ABOVE: With fake cover from the late 90s (many copies seem to exist of this one!)

ABOVE: With fake cover from the late 90s!

ABOVE: With fake cover from the late 90s!

None of the ugly looking record covers above are any original, only the records on the inside of the faked record covers are. I have met the two guys from Zürich that have been responsible for all the above bootleg covers at some record fair in Zürich towards the late 90s (but I refused to buy any of the faked copies from them!)

Most of the sleeveless copies of the MD Single seem to have stayed unsold. They've been stored away at Christian Tschernitsch's dad's place for many years, until the late 90s when they have finally sold to two slightly hippy looking punks from Zürich. I've originally wanted to obtain them myself. I've first met the label owner in the early 90s, and then I've tried for years to buy his unsold stock, but even after a couple of years of trying he still couldn't find any free time to finally clean out his dad's place. The two guys that have finally bought them knew that the records were rare, but they were not sure if they could sell them sleeveless. They also knew that the original record was issued inside some cardboard cover, but since they've had never seen a copy of the original sleeve, they've decided to just make up a completely new cover on their own. Those record sleeves of course are of absolutely NO collectors value at all, because they are not original! I would NOT value such a faked record for over the price of a sleeveless copy!


Thanks to: Andreas "Skylord" Wunderlin for selling me the original record in the early 90s!