Spontaneous Human Combustion could probably write their own major-label

record deal.

That's because their lineup includes the mastermind of techno pioneers

Meat Beat Manifesto and a producer/multi-instrumentalist who has worked

with the Rolling Stones and U2.

But for now, they're just giving their music away.

"We're in a position where none of us are desperate to get a record deal,"

Danny Saber, a former guitarist for the UK band Black Grape, said. Saber's

production resume includes U2, Michael Hutchence and the Rolling Stones

(tracks on the 1997 album Bridges to Babylon).

"There are so many other options and avenues, there's no point in signing

a record deal when we can investigate other things and not be tied down

until the time is right."

Spontaneous Human Combustion — including Meat Beat Manifesto's Jack

Dangers and singer Cope Till — decided instead to post some music

online, for free, before signing on any dotted line.

They are offering a version of their driving dance-rock song "All for

Nothin' " (RealAudio

excerpt) at www.SHCombustion.com. The site also features a remix

of the song by Dangers, who is credited with scratching, sampling and

background vocals on the original track.

Saber said the band can "absof---inglutely" reach more people by posting

free music than by "playing to 10 people in some crummy club in L.A. This

is just a much more sensible and cool way to do it. If they take the

trouble to download the music and e-mail us, then you know they are

interested."

The song, a mix of hip-hop and techno beats, rock guitars and turntable

scratching, features vocals by 25-year-old Alabama native Till, a former

assistant studio engineer who has worked on albums by glam rockers Orgy

and rappers Wyclef Jean and Canibus.

Rolling Stones backing vocalist Bernard Fowler sings on "All for Nothin' "

and former Nine Inch Nails/Guns n' Roses collaborator Sean Beavan plays

guitar.

Spontaneous Human Combustion have finished five other songs, including

"Products of the Disease," "Numb," "Ketaject" and "Million $ Monkey"

— with a cameo from David Bowie guitarist Reeves Gabrels —

according to Saber.

The Web giveaway seems to be working, according to the band's manager,

Shannon O'Shea. She said the site is getting between 200 and 500 visits

a day, with virtually no promotion, touring or, frankly, effort.

"There's not a sense of adventure to the music business," said O'Shea,

former manager of electronic rock band Garbage. "And everyone is bored

with the corporate systems. They [the major labels] are so large and they

move so slowly. This way of doing things moves very quickly."

SHC have the chance to be the first name-brand band to be launched entirely

from the Net, according to Marc Geiger, co-founder of ArtistDirect, the

booking agency, label and website company sponsoring the band's site.

"There's been a lot of conversations about how it would be great to have

a band break from the Web — to have them go from the Web to being

signed to getting a successful record and show that there are alternative

ways to have a record develop," Geiger said.

Saber and Dangers first connected in 1998, when they remixed rap group

Public Enemy's "Go Cat Go" for the PE soundtrack album He Got Game.

"We had a cool vibe [during the remix session], so we started talking

and said, 'Let's f--- around and see what happens,' " Saber said. "It

was instantaneously fun and cool, so we started writing songs."

They met Till two years ago during a show by the singer's then band at

the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles. "We knew we'd found our singer and we

stopped looking immediately because everyone else we'd found was pretty

retarded," Saber said.

After what O'Shea said was the surprising success of the single online,

a vinyl album is slated for release in late 1999 — on an undetermined

label — with a number of remixes of "All for Nothin' " by Dangers

and some as-yet-unnamed artists.

Geiger said the success of such a cyber-launch could buoy the hundreds

of unknown "MP3 bands" posting their wares on various websites in the

hope of building a buzz.

"This is just a beginning," he said. "You start with a band like this,

then you begin picking artists in the underground and exposing them and

help take them to the next level."