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Does Stack work?

I’ve mentioned independent magazine subs service Stack here before. It sounded like a great idea – a different independent magazine by post every month. Does it live up to its promise? I’ve now received three monthly packages from them and the simple answer is yes.

First, I received film magazine Electric Sheep (‘A deviant view of cinema’), as featured here before. Hard to get hold of sometimes, it was a pleasure to receive the latest issue by post. Next up came music magazine Bearded.

I hadn’t seen this before and enjoyed reading it, although despite some lovely illustration (a healthy alternative to the normal band portraits) it’s appearance (below) was perhaps a little simple, an over-sedate design stripping the subject matter of vitality and excitement.

Then just this week I’ve received a copy of Plan B (cover, top), another music title. It features a more traditional photographic approach to music, and a busier layout, but was still disappointing from a design point of view.

But it’s not just about design, is it? All these magazines have carved a niche for themselves and are worth a read, and while Plan B is probably the best-known of the three, all are relatively difficult to track down – I would never have seen Bearded without Stack sending it to me.

So I recommend Stack – sign up and see what arrives next month.