This Is Heaven-200 Variations Flying Nun Xpressway NZ
$
153
$ 153
Sold For
Feb 2, 2011
Sold Date
Jan 26, 2011
Start Date
$ 10
Start price
2
Number Of Bids
USA
Country Of Seller
eBay
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Description
This Is Heaven- 200 Variations EP 7" (Flying Nun Records/Industrial Tapes INDUSTRIAL 021) PS
Fantastic and very rare early Flying Nun 7" EP/Art Piece from Paul Luker's This Is Heaven. This would best be linked to later work on Xpressway Tapes as the sound has a vibe similar to some of Alastair Galbraith and Peter Jefferies work. Just brilliant!Early Flying Nun releases were all across the map with Dunedin bands like The Chills, The Clean, The Verlaines, Sneaky Feelings, Exploding Budgies, The Stones and Bored Games and The Doublehappys, Christchurch bands like the Victor Dimisich Band, The Pin Group, The Terminals, Scorched Earth Policy, The Builders (Bill Direen and The Bilders) and Auckland's Tall Dwarfs, Bird Nest Roys and Able Tasmans and eventually inspiring later artists like New Zealand's The 3D's and American bands like Pavement, Guided By Voices, Crystal Stilts & Tyvek.
Please note that because the hand painted innersleeve holding the record was taped to the booklet cover with an acidic tape, the front cover of every copy I've seen (I've seen 2 in person and 2 others in photos) have tape discoloration on the cover. As I understand it, this is consistent without exception across the 200 copies made.
This Is Heaven were Paul Luker with Lorraine Steele (both also of Flying Nun band Phantom Forth). They were an art project and early/mid 80's/early Flying Nun band who issued this 7" EP in a micro edition of 200 as a co-release between Luker's Industrial Records and Flying Nun. Luker's Industrial cassette imprint also released works from Marie and the Atom, The Skeptics, Kim Blackburn & Sandra Bell, Sneaky Feelings and a couple of other This Is Heaven cassette releases. This was Industrial's only vinyl release thanks to Flying Nun's decision to co-release.
“…as the name suggests there are 200 33rpm 7? inch records, each with a package including a screen printed cover, a 40 page book of common and unique (to the 200 variations) pages [sellers note: 40 pages is hard to gauge, there are textured pages and blank plastic pages, I count 19 sheets including the fold overs plus to cover so I expect 40 pages is on target or close]. The music is lovely, gently distorted and rather mysterious…” Russell Brown Rip It Up magazine.
“…the making of the covers for the single (200 Variations) was a labour of love, driven by the ‘fascination with process’ …strangely these covers present themselves as a cross between, one-off kit-set throwaway and precious art objects. Lowbrow punkish production meets gallery wall, with the complexity of construction belying the carelessness with which they seem to have been created…” -Sound Design, an exhibition of music graphics from the UK and NZ, exhibition catalogue, New Zealand Design Archive 2002 ISBN 1-877314-03-X
Tracks are:
1. Battered The Boy
2. Mr Kingdom
1. Turkish Otter Time
2. Things Up The Shirt Sleeves
From Mysterex :
On the demise of his pioneering Auckland post-punk fanzine, Empty Heads, Paul Luker made ready to make his own music. The message after all.
“My favourite bands were so independent - Shoes This High, The Gordons, The Herco Pilots, The Skeptics - and sometime in 1981 Phantom Forth formed.
“With so many singles coming out I thought recording would be just as easy. I bought a two track from Oceania Sound and to figure out how to use it I started doing my own stuff fiddling around. I started recording with Mike Neilson who later did sound for Miltown Stowaways (he would be half of Lava Lava in the 1990s). When I came back to Auckland after The Criminals tour I flatted with him. He was a guitarist. I bought a Holden amp from a flatmate. He helped me chose a horrible acoustic Yamaha bass. The two of us – The Silver Ferns – we played a few parties. He was really into sound and went off to do that.
“I still wanted to do music. Lorraine Steele was around. She’d come back from Britain. She used to hang around with Herco Pilots who became Coalition. I’d met Deb through Mark (Luker’s brother). She used to hang around with Nick and Julian Hansen. Deb knew Lorraine. Before we knew it we had a practice and that was Phantom Forth.
“It worked and I was gob smacked that it did. We just plugged and played to a DR55 drum machine. When we started I was listening to Young Marble Giants. I was quite besotted with that for a while. Cabaret Voltaire. Those sort of influences. We got a Roland 606 after that.
“It took us ages to get it together. Lorraine and Deb were good. I didn’t know a thing. We did two songs at the Lab studio way before The Last Rumba (live compilation album). Bill Latimer had said something to Chris Knox about us and we started to get known. Our first gig was an afternoon show at the Windsor Castle. Three or four bands on. Deb was still playing with Freudian Slips when we were practising Phantom Forth.”
The Auckland post-punk scene was peaking. There were plenty of venues operating including the Liberty Stage and Café XS as well as the pubs which put on original music, and Luker the fan was still stepping out.
7" is VG (quite good for this record, the singles were initially stored in a hand painted 7" sleeve that was ungood for them and resulted in some surface noise but this is fairly unscathed)/Cover is VG (about as good as they get).
I accept payments through Paypal. I also accept payment by mail in US currancy and Checks drawn on US banks (Checks require 10 days to clear the bank). Please do not send cash by postal mail, I cannot be responsible for cash sent by mail.
Buyer pays shipping:
Air Mail To USA : $3.00
Air Mail To Canada : $4.25
Europe/Australia/NZ: $6.00
Asia: $6.00
I will ship internationally & I will provide proof of mailing but I cannot guarantee delivery overseas (Italy has been a problem for many sellers) unless the buyer elects to use international priority mailing (ask for details...coverage is limited). It is essential that you provide a clear and accurate address for mailing of a package. Domestic packages to the USA are sent with delivery tracking.
I need to be clear that I can provide proof of shipping on any package mailed, but I cannot be responsible for packages lost in the post. In order to minimize the likelyhood of lost packages I print the address from your paypal payment address and give you the oppportunity to correct the address if necessary. If you pay by postal mail, I ask that you email me your address so that I can print a label from your email.
These prices reflect Priority shipping with coverage of $63.78 added automatically up to 1 pound.
Western Europe: $23.00
Asia : $22.00
Australia: $21.00
New Zealand: $19.50
