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XLR MAG

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On the calendar

· Trade shows and launch events, this week's stories from each corner of the industry, and what its press is covering.

On view

This week, from that corner the newest stories from the corner of the industry you picked

The wire their own posts, translated

How records get made in 2026 from the industry's own reports

Sources

Fetched every six hours, linked to the original

About

Three pins, and nearly every signal in this business passes through them.

The magazine is named after the cable: the microphone in the booth, the line to the desk, the DMX run that fires the lights. Studio, stage and rig share the same cable. Most magazines pick one of the three. This one covers all of it, because the people we read do too — the engineer mixing a record on Tuesday is on front of house by Saturday.

Around a hundred and sixty sources, in English, Japanese, Spanish, German, French, Chinese and Italian: makers and their release notes, reviewers who put a hand on the thing, studios and touring crews, the producers and collectives surfacing this month and the scenes they came out of. Synths and modular, plugins and DAWs, guitars and drums, microphones, monitors, PA and lighting. What the trade is talking about is counted and plotted. The editor's letter has just started; it will find its rhythm.

For each story: a headline, a short excerpt, one picture and the link out. We never reprint the article, and the picture belongs to the maker or the photographer. A German review appears in German and a Japanese one in Japanese, as the writer published it; the link goes to the original.

Nothing is sold on this site. When a link leads to a shop, it is the maker's shop, not ours.

Cover of Frogs in a Pond — Cover via the Cover Art Archive ↗

Album · Concord Jazz · released 2026.10.23

Frogs in a Pond

Surprise Chef

XLR rating

—

Out of 10 · awaiting a listen by the desk

Press score

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Not collected yet · the reviews we read are linked below

Apple Music ↗Bandcamp ↗YouTube ↗

The player loads only when you press it · Spotify and Apple Music and Bandcamp open the artist’s page, not this record · YouTube opens a search

Tracklist

01Inside Voice—:—SGR
02Outside Voice—:—SGR
03Frog Technique—:—SGR
04Knuckle Sandwich—:—SGR
05I Love What You've Done With the Place—:—SGR
06Get Well Soon—:—SGR
07Duet—:—SGR
08The Reno—:—SGR
09Tadpoles—:—SGR
10Leg Day4:56SGR
11Where the Crows Fly Backwards—:—SGR
12Omnipresence—:—SGR
13Frogs in a Pond—:—SGR

13 tracks · Titles and lengths from MusicBrainz ↗ (CC0), checked 2026.10.26 · tracks: Skip · Good · On repeat, by the desk, after listening

The desk’s take

Awaiting a listen.

When someone on the desk has heard the whole record, they write a paragraph here and sign it

What the press said

10.26Surprise Chef :: Frogs In A PondAquarium Drunkard ↗
Like the best giallo scores, Surprise Chef's Frogs In A Pond finds beauty in the uneasy marriage of the sinister and the seductive.

Headlines and short excerpts from the stories we read, each linked to its source · more appear as the press publishes them

Stylesfunkinstrumentaljazzsoulsoul jazz

Style tags: MusicBrainz, CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Release data: MusicBrainz ↗, matched from ListenBrainz new releases named in our headlines on 2026.10.26