The Tangled Web

BURN BABY BURN: Fans of DJs, house and other electronic music forms can now browse a specialized download store with the launch of Trax2Burn.com. Fatboy Slim's Southern Fried Records and former Underworld member Darren Emerson's Underwater label signed on for the site's launch and have dedicated pages among the service's digital offerings.

End Recordings is the only other current label selling its material through the nascent service, which has deals with a handful of other labels whose content will be "coming soon" to the site. Trax2Burn posits itself as an "independent MP3 distribution service" through which electronic-music labels can digitally reach targeted audiences that might not frequent larger online retailers.

The U.K.-based Trax2Burn sells cuts for £0.99 ($1.77) each; full albums are not applicable as much to the site's favored genres, but EPs and other bundled tracks are options. Current featured artists include Paul Jackson, Gus Gus and Layo and Bushwacka!


WARPED DOWNLOADS: This month saw the debut of esteemed indie label Warp Records' much-anticipated online clearinghouse, Bleep.com. Housed within the Warp site, Bleep contains MP3s of the entire catalog of the U.K.-based label, which has been purveying experimental electronic music since 1991.

Bleep.com is offering exclusive music as well. As of Jan. 26, two brand new Squarepusher tracks ("Squarewindow" and "Talk About You and Me") are available on the site. Though the cuts were also released on a limited-edition vinyl-only EP the same day, Bleep represents the only digital release of the songs, which will not be included on Squarepusher's upcoming full-length "Ultravisitor," due in March from Warp.

Bleep's tracks, which retail for $1.35 or £1.50, are also encoded with a higher sound quality than is typically found at other download stores -- according to the site, its MP3s are on average encoded at 205 kilobytes per second (kbps), compared with the standard 128-192 kbps.