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Robert Barry

@monsterbobby.bsky.social
2.2K followers 1.2K following 611 posts

Freelance writer (The Wire, Tribune, Art Review, Mubi Notebook, &c.). Musicker (Far Rainbow, The Pipettes). Reviews Editor at The Quietus. Author of The Music of the Future (Repeater, 2017), Object Lessons: Compact Disc (Bloomsbury, 2020). Idiot.

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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Gotta say I quite like choosing texas. Think it’s basically a fine pop song and have absolutely heard it dozens of times (some of them even of my own volition). It’s fine if you don’t or haven’t but that‘s not like a personality or anything.
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
At Neiderdorf’s annual potato festival “the original” in northern Italy. Disappointing lack of potato-themed content tbh
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Apollo @apollo-magazine.com · 22/09/2026
‘Mendieta is rarely thought of as a “media artist”, in the mould of Nam June Paik or Trevor Paglen, but whether drawing on paper made of tree bark or shooting on 16mm film, the physicality of different materials is at the forefront of her work.’ Robert Barry on Ana Mendieta at Tate Modern.
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Ana Mendieta’s singular vision is sharper than ever
A major retrospective at Tate Modern reveals an artist whose talent burns more brightly than ever, writes Robert Barry
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
if you know you know
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Texted a friend yesterday and he wrote back to say he was on the Côte d’Azur. I said, Nice? He said, very!
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
read an Eric Ambler book recently and got really nostalgic for a time when you could just decide to go to a place and get on a train and go to that place without spending weeks planning and booking things in advance. weird how the instantaneity of the net has actually made spontaneous travel harder.
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
One of two mirror balls installed by Charlemagne Palestine in the Tonspur passage in Vienna’s museum quarter.
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
am being relentlessly pursued the length and breadth of this train platform by a wasp. hate to be a cop but if it boards the train i’m gonna have to call the conductor to inspect its ticket.
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
the way apple maps actually makes street names smaller when you zoom in should be considered a hate crime against people over 40.
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
kicking off Lasse Marhaug’s marathon 24-hour noise concert at the old studios of the Norwegian national broadcaster…
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Last week I was Eupen in the east of Belgium, watching people make sounds out of ceramics, kilims and burning microphones. Read my report on Meakusma Festival @thequietus.com here thequietus.com/quietus-revi...
thequietus.com
Don't Resolve the Dissonance: Meakusma Festival 2026 | The Quietus
It was when he started swinging the second microphone that I started to worry. It was a fairly confined space. The first mic had already gone flying off its lead and smashed against the wall. Shruggin...
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
I think I noted during the recent Belfast riots that a certain kind of man is not really interested in protecting women & girls; he's interested in protecting the exclusive right of his kind of man to abuse and control women and girls.
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Alex Hern @hern.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Mental how many people drive innit
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
next week on firstfloor dot com: Sia Not Actually That Little 12 Year Old Girl!
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Ok so for once I don't actually have any writing in the new issue of The Wire. BUT you should STILL BUY IT. Because *even without me* it remains – somehow, incredibly – a fantastic magazine.
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
It's funny how, any time someone makes a vaguely fact-based historical drama movie, if they cast Jeremy Strong as a real historical figure, you know 100% for sure the director thinks that person is an absolute tool.
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
When I heard Tim Curry had died, oddly perhaps, because I do love those films, what first sprang to mind was not Rocky Horror or Clue, but an exchange from early on in Skolimowski's The Shout: "He's not entirely normal," "What's normal?"
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Kinda fascinating that the guy behind this mad 45 year-old record of ARP synths and eerie ritualistic chanting finneganswake.bandcamp.com/album/silances is also the author of a comprehensive index of the seminars of Jacques Lacan www.lacanonline.com/2011/01/henr...
finneganswake.bandcamp.com
Silances, by Henry Krutzen
9 track album
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more mr. nice guy @juniorhoncho.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
if someone earnestly brought up either their own or anybody else's IQ in conversation i would walk away while they're still talking. incredibly boring and unpleasant type of stupid to be. homie you got brain damage from an online quiz. wow 135 that's so smart, what hogwarts house did you get
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
i feel like Kurtag should be more popular online. like here’s this guy making all these funny little bits of music, they’re a bit wacky, a bit silly sometimes, but they’re a minute long so🤷guy basically invnted tiktok but it’s contemporary music.
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
I really love Joni Mitchell's records, but for years I avoided ever listening to Blue out of some sort of instinctive aversion. Now, much later and much more familiar with Blue, any time I do hear one of the songs from that album I can't help but think, shit, I was right all along! That album sucks!
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Helen Barrett @helenbarrett.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
No one is going to read your press release.
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Xylitol / DJ Bunnyhausen @bunnyhausen.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Heads up that I'm putting on another basement party next month to celebrate my being a year older www.brunswickpub.co.uk/event-detail...
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Jon Buckland @pacificbeliefs.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
For this month's @bandcamp.com Tape Label Report, I caught up with the good folks behind Bloxham Tapes. Read it, if you like: daily.bandcamp.com/tape-label-r... @alisoncotton.bsky.social @obsidianshard.bsky.social @lukedrozd.bsky.social
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
It's new issue of The Wire time! This month, I interviewed reclusive mystery man of Portuguese electronic music, Nuno Canavarro and reviewed a festival of sound art in the suburbs of Copenhagen on the hottest day in Danish history.
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
god i hate it when things are "highly anticipated"
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
wrote about apes, blockchains, protocols and music for @artreview.bsky.social artreview.com/the-blockcha...
artreview.com
The Blockchain Fantasy is Dying
SoundCloud’s recently announced acquisition of NFT music platform Nina Protocol sounds the death knell for the illusion of tech’s utopianism in the arts
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Amanda Farah @amandafarah.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Something similar happened in France a few years ago. Climate activists responded by filling the golf holes with cement. www.bbc.com/news/world-e...
bbc.com
Climate activists fill golf holes with cement after water ban exemption
French environmentalists sabotage golf greens to protest against their exemption from water bans.
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Richard V. Hirst @richardvhirst.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Martin Prince with a speech bubble
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
I reviewed Oliver Beer's recent show at Ropac, London, for @artreview.bsky.social artreview.com/oliver-beer-...
artreview.com
Oliver Beer’s Music for Paintings
The artist’s canvases record the shapes created by hundreds of notes like a musical score, but the closer you get, the less gestural they appear
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
This was a nice one
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Dana Stevens @thehighsign.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Our age of bronze is collapsing
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Bought tickets to see the Philip Venables opera 4:48 Psychosis and my google calendar has helpfully autocorrected to 16:48 Psychosis, so now every time I look at the calendar for October it's like, oh, yes, I must remember to go mad at about ten to five in the afternoon that day.
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
apparently it’s 20 years to the day since me and a bunch of pals from brighton released an album that changed our lives (and maybe a few other people’s too). so, for old times sake, let’s all pull some shapes youtu.be/HbnVNZe2D_0
youtu.be
The Pipettes - Pull Shapes
YouTube video by ThePipettesVEVO
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John Doran @jahduran.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Dear Hearts, If you don't already, please think about dropping a few quid a month on a Quietus subscription during the last day of the 1/3 off sale. And if you can't afford it, maybe give us a 'reskeet' instead! Thx! thequietus.com/subscribers/
thequietus.com
Subscribers | The Quietus
Support independent journalism and culture Help The Quietus continue bringing you the best in cultural criticism by joining one of our subscription tiers. Cancel easily anytime.
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Wrote a little bit about some of the records by Fluxus-affiliated artists and composers in my collection for @thequietus.com 's subscribers thequietus.com/subscriber-a...
thequietus.com
Organic Intelligence LVIII: Fluxus on Vinyl | The Quietus
In 1963, Nam June Paik made a doner kebab out of records. Born in Seoul in 1932, the irrepressible artist and composer had moved to Germany in 1957 to study music at the University of Munich. Soon aft...
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Cometh the hour cometh the bin.
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Wrote a few little bits for @thequietus.com Albums of the Year So Far chart about recent albums by Juni Habel and Bergrún Snæbjörnsdóttir. But who made the top spot? Only one way to find out, pop pickers! thequietus.com/tq-charts/al...
thequietus.com
The Quietus Albums of the Year So Far 2026 (In Association with Norman Records) | The Quietus
Six months into 2026 here are the best albums of the year so far, as voted for by tQ staffers, columnists and writers
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Anyone know a pub in central / east / south-east london with a big outdoor terrace that definitely won't be showing any sports tonight?
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
someone needs to make a public list of london pubs that will never show football so i know where i can drink during these Difficult Times.
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
The new issue of The Wire magazine is out and it features my interview with artist Phil Coy and also my review of some of the more sound & music-y bits at this year's Venice Biennale. Run to your nearest newsagent and get your copy now!
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
The V&A's Lost Music Venues display is still closed "due to extreme heat". It's only 22° today. How can a museum that big with that much money still not have adequate air con?
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
what do you call two psychics in a big top? a media circus
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j... Excitingly, we could be mere months away from Trump being made anti-pope and a cybertruck getting ordained as a bishop.
theguardian.com
Crisis looms for Pope Leo as splinter sect seeks to ordain far-right bishops
Conflict threatens to worsen mounting tensions between the Vatican and rightwing Catholics in the US and globally
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claire biddles @msclairebiddles.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
hello everyone i am working on a big piece for guardian about the CURRENT STATE OF MUSIC ZINES!!!! i have many already but i want to get as many as poss from FAR AND WIDE in uk so pls either fill out the form here or email me directly (email on my website in bio) www.theguardian.com/music/2026/j...
theguardian.com
Sniffin’ Glue at 50! Do you make a music zine? If so, we want to see it
To mark 50 years since the punk DIY publishing explosion, we want to compile a map of the UK’s contemporary zine scene
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
have added a few dots to my public sound art map recently – still lots missing though. Do please drop me a line if you know of anything that's not there cargocollective.com/bobbybarry/P...
cargocollective.com
Public Sound Art Map - Robert Barry
Public Sound Art Map (2026–) In early 2026, I found myself searching online for some sort of map that would detail the locations of permanent works of sound art around the world. Since I couldn't find...
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
extremely sorry but can sports people please try not to post things that just say like oh fuck oh no this is dreadful without any context cos as a non sports person it makes me think maybe something actually bad and of consequence might have happened please and thank you.
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Doctor says, treatment is simple: Prime Minister's in town. Everyone hates hiim. Go tell the voters you're going to depose him. Your electoral prospects should pick right up. Andy Burnham in a few months' time: But doctor, I am… etc etc.
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Robert Barry @monsterbobby.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Not sure what I've done to deserve this but the youtube algorithm is now serving me videos which tell me to pour hydrogen peroxide on my own feet.
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