Bleep.com has opened up a physical store on London's Kingsland Road in Dalston. Taking up the space of a former hair salon, the Warp affiliated shop took only two weeks to transform into a fully-functioning record store. It's called Bleep X and currently plans to open for a period of three months. “It is something Bleep have been wanting to do for a while and have been looking at spaces and exploring avenues for a while now” says music programmer Raj Chaudhuri. “However, the space itself and who we do this with is very important to us. When we stumbled across this Dalston space – we knew it was perfect.”

“We work with so many different artists and labels closely, selling and promoting their music on the Bleep [online] store," confirms Chaudhuri. “This shop is an opportunity to bring a new angle to a lot of these relationships.” He continues: “We are starting to explore things we have never been able to do with this physical space. It is 1200 square foot and going to allow us to explore live music, DJ sets, talks, Q&As, screenings and most importantly a real life interaction with both the artists, labels but also the customers that have been a part of Bleep's 14 year history. We've had so many positive and supportive responses when news started spreading that we was doing this.”

But why now? “Who doesn't love a good record or musical item just before Christmas? Also, we think this is an interesting time for music retail and we wanted to try something out in a shop setting.

“We are keen to see what this experiment brings and let the next three months guide where this goes...”

The shop will run in partnership with NTS Radio, Brainfeeder, Resident Advisor, Black Focus, and us at The Wire. The shop will be open from 10 November with its first instore happening the following day with the label Melodies International. Aside from Melodies, other in-store events and weeklong takeovers including album launches, DJ sets, talks, demonstrations include Bleep × Magicwire (15 November), Bleep × NTS Radio (1 December), Bleep × Black Focus (7), Bleep × Brainfeeder (14), Bleep × The Wire (12 January), and Bleep × Resident Advisor (19).

Bleep X can be found at 529 Kingsland Rd, E8 4AR. Opening hours are Monday–Thursday 10am–7pm, Friday–Saturday 10am–8pm, Sunday 10am–6pm.