Learn to Swim

There's hardly ever any interesting news out of Learn to Swim as they're usually busy making up music or watching DVDs. Mind you, these pages are filling up quite nicely aren't they?

DECEMBER 2006

• THIS MONTH - Bagman's back. Everybody cheer.

• A GREETING - Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter/summer (according to hemisphere) solstice holiday, practiced with the most fulfilling religious practices and/or most enjoyable secular traditions of your choice with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.
  We also wish you a fiscally sufficient, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make our country great (not to imply that any one politically homogeneous nation state is necessarily greater than any other) and without reference to your race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith, sexual preference or  health /  housing /  financial status.

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms:
This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher(s) actually to implement any of the wishes for or on behalf of her / himself or others and is void where prohibited by law and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of any subsequent holiday or other personal greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

AUGUST 2006

• THIS MONTH - RASPAD - Once in a while various members of the Learn to Swim family get together under the name Karswell to collaborate. Don't think supergroup - think of families and Christmas. Except without the turkey (unless Bagman's involved). For the second release under this name, we present Raspad - a collection of pieces used in a short film produced by an independent bunch of Russian film makers last year. "Raspad" is the name for the post-Soviet era of Russia (literally meaning "disintegration"). The story centres around Misha, who is 20 years old as Yeltsin comes to power and slowly realises that the certainties he was just learning to live with are tumbling down before his eyes. Cue lots of greying concrete, veiled threats, shadowy figures who may be friends and a potentially dangerous future.  Sadly the planned broadcast of the film on RNT1 has hit trouble with the Russian censors, but you can still listen to the music. And there's a lot of it - all here.

• CHARTS - The Download Chart has been updated and will now include the top five downloads every month as well as the ongoing top 20 and the top 5 artists. Bagman seems to be threatening Hair by Roger's position as most popular artist - but then again...

• NEXT MONTH - as you can see on the release schedule, next month, ladies and gentlemen sees the much awaited third release by Hair by Roger

• LEARN TO SWIM: VOLUME TWO - We're currently having the usual rows about what should go on the second compilation CD.

• THE LEARN TO SWIM ORCHESTRA - what could it possibly be? No, we're still not saying.

JULY 2006

• THE MAN ACID IS BACK - LTS father figure and genial host Acid Wilhelm brings you another of his perennial summer releases in the form of Hysterisis three more slices of noise in the dark. The title track Workaholism has been mixed by David Loophead and so is perhaps a little more, er, upbeat than the usual Wilhelm sound. In the sense that it actually has a beat, for once.

• SYD BARRETT (1946-2006) All of us at Learn to Swim were terribly sad to hear of the death of Syd Barrett. You can probably detect where his all-too-brief creative period has had a keen influence on many of us here. We'd like to recommend that you listen to the first of his two solo albums "The Madcap Laughs" by way of a tribute. RIP.

• COMING SOON - in the fullness of time we'll have more from Hair by Roger and Karswell. We've also got a newcomer in the form of a rumbling man known only as Timbertoe. Those of you who are wondering what's happened to Bagman will be delighted to hear that you'll be able to keep wondering for the forseeable future.

• THE LEARN TO SWIM ORCHESTRA - what could it possibly be? That's a question we'll leave hanging in the air for now. Enigmatic, eh?

June 2006

• BEEN A WHILE HASN'T IT? - Acid Wilhelm is, despite press reports to the contrary, still alive. Sort of.

• NEW SINGLE - We return with a brand new band.  Please welcome Lipsmacker with their double A-side Toxins which comes along with the equally marvellous Msg.

• COMING SOON (OR EVENTUALLY) - In the pipeline are new singles by: Acid Wilhelm, Hair By Roger, Karswell...and a bunch of other new stuff. It'll turn up sooner or later. Promise.

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