the barrel nut #6 and #7: double barrelled!

February 23, 2014 at 10:08 pm | Posted in art, no audience underground, not bloody music | 4 Comments
Tags: collage, cut-ups, dex wright, gary simmons, hiroshima yeah!, joe murray, julian bradley, lucia foster, mark ritchie, michael clough, no audience underground, posset, tapenoise, the barrel nut, visual art, yol, zines

The more zine-hungry amongst you will have noticed that during my recent illness I was, sadly, only able to publish one issue of The Barrel Nut microzine.  However, I’m glad to say that despite this unavoidable slowdown the plaudits kept coming in.  It was voted ‘The North’s most charming noise/art delivery system’ by Members Aflame! – the newsletter of the Campaign for Civility in Power Electronics and was awarded an unprecedented 4.5 star-shaped sensory appendages out of 5 by Tago Mi-Go – the journal of Lovecraftian Krautrock studies (heh, heh – lolz – that nugget of comedy gold dedicated to Paul Walsh who celebrated his 50th birthday last week – happy belated returns!).  This approbation has spurred me on to publish issues #6 and #7 simultaneously, thus recovering some of the lost ground.

Newbies might be wondering what I’m on about.  Well here’s me self-quoting some explanatory blurb (those in the know can skip it):

A microzine is a single sided, single sheet of A4 paper cleverly folded to make an eight panel, A7 pamphlet.  Paper copies will be distributed to anyone who wants one, or who has expressed an interest in the past.  I’ll bring some to gigs I attend and a bunch will be passed around by those with a similar love of the post.

Should you be all internet-enabled n’ that then you are very welcome to download and print out your own.  It’s well salt-and-shake!  Links to the latest issue in jpeg and pdf formats are below (you’ll need to trim the print-out a bit down one edge to make it fold properly).  Some more context, assembly instructions and previous issues can be found on the Nut’s own page (tabbed above).

Should you wish to contribute artwork then I would be very grateful indeed.  Submissions need to look OK when reproduced as a black and white photocopy and be 7cm by 10cm in size (or scalable to roughly those dimensions).  Good quality scans attached to an email are fine, originals sent in the post ideal.  Please get in touch.

So there you have it…

Some really terrific contributions this time around.  We have gnomic poetry and lollipop toting ghost children from Julian Bradley of Zellaby Award winners The Piss Superstion – a chap who should be better known for his exceptional graphic work.  We have the monarch of the glen being prepared to become ‘value’ lasagne and a comment on the moustachioed breed of hipsterism by Yol, master of the starkly black and white and a TBN regular.  We are celebrating the release from prison of Hiroshima Yeah!’s Gary Simmons with a bleak sketch of a cell window and a collage made during his time incarcerated (the smears are toothpaste – he wasn’t allowed glue).  His fellow HY! editor Mark Ritchie contributes a poem-ish cut-up as does RFM’s very own Joe Murray, of Posset infamy. We have Michael Clough to thank for donating a double-page spread of elegant minimalism built from offcuts created whilst constructing one of his photocopier experiments (of which more anon).  Hard stares for Dex Wright of Tapenoise who lays down some paranoia-inducing, exuberantly worked, outsider Cubism.  Finally, we are treated to an unnerving sketch by Lucia Foster, a Mexican based illustrator affiliated to Miguel Perez’s Oracle Netlabel/Agorafobia Tapes axis.  Her work is new to me and I hope to see more of it in future.

I’m proud to bring this lot to your attention.  Contributors and subscribers will be receiving copies in the post in due course.  Links to downloadable versions below, as promised.  A plea: leaving aside a rainy day stockpile of stuff by the regulars I am in need of submissions for future issues.  If you’ve ever fancied giving it a go then now is the time to get the crayons out…

The Barrel Nut #6 as a pdf file

The Barrel Nut #6 as a jpeg file

The Barrel Nut #7 as a pdf file

The Barrel Nut #7 as a jpeg file