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.

← XLR MAG Archive

The Line of Best FitScenes

Emma Ruth Rundle reaches for revelation on These Killing Times

September 17

These Killing Times is clearly sincere but occasionally feels more accomplished than exciting.

Albums

Read at The Line of Best Fit ↗

One letter a week, in your inbox.

Latest

Emma Ruth Rundle reaches for revelation on These Killing Times

More from The Line of Best Fit on XLR MAG

ScenesHotWax, Scorcher, Suggz and A Certain Ratio added to Beyond The Music line-up The Line of Best Fit

ScenesDay and Night is Carly Rae Jepsen's most literary and far-reaching work to date The Line of Best Fit

ScenesAimée Fatale is on the rise The Line of Best Fit

ScenesRadie Peat to perform debut solo album at the Barbican The Line of Best Fit

ScenesRobocobra Quartet detail 100-song album, Hundred Pieces The Line of Best Fit

ScenesPorridge Radio's Dana Margolin makes her solo debut with new single, "Big Beautiful Sound" The Line of Best Fit