THIS IS.... PAUL LUKER

Rip It Up, Issue 101, 1 December 1985, Page 6

THIS 15.... PAUL LUKER

Russell Brown

In late 1984, Paul Luker came up to the RIU office to tell about a new cassette label he was starting, called Industrial Tapes. He had just quit his job as a photoengraver because it was screwing up his sight, and anyway he wanted to concentrate on things that were important to him. He’d already done a low-key national tour reading his own poetry and he was a member of Phantom Forth and it was things such as these he wanted to devote his time to and damn the money.

Industrial Tapes became the biggest factor in last year's cassette release boom in fact it was rather too successful. Inevitably most of

the work fell on Paul that included not only organising and distributing the tapes, but often designing covers for other peoples’ cassettes and even recording them on the

four-track Portastudio he got from Internal Affairs. Phantom Forth had become This Is Heaven (essentially Paul and Lorraine Steele) and released two tapes, but all the administration was squeezing him out of time for his own projects, so he gradually wound down the label which he'd intended to do from the outset anyway. After something of a delay, the first This Is Heaven record, 200 Variations has come out in time for Christmas. As the name suggests, there are 200 33rpm 7” records, each with a package including a screenprinted cover, a small book, a piece of home-made reconstituted paper (lemon-scented!) and other odd bits of paper, each one unique. The music itself is lovely, gently distorted in the recording and rather mysterious. It can be had for sls from 265 Papamoa Beach Rd, RD 7, Te Puke, where he now lives.

In between a beekeeping course and a correspondence course in tree cropping, Paul has also been preparing for an exhibition at RKS Gallery in March/April next year, where he will present 10 handmade one-off books for sale. Subjects include Pukehina, Rotorua, islands of the Bay of Plenty and the Ureweras. Further afield is a bigger and better 12" record-book package, again in a run of 200.

The guiding principle, he says, is to develop and use all his skills photo-engraving, recording, paper making, screenprinting and whatever else he can pick up. And what else does this chappie who decided his job was to get off the treadmill and start nurturing his creativity? “I want to make paper that grows," he grins. “I’ll put seeds in suspension in it you’ll be able to rip out the page, add water and hey presto, plants!”