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The Mechanisms - 'Ulysses Dies At Dawn'

Steampunk Storytelling Space-Pirates The Mechanisms are raising money for a new album, entitled 'Ulysses Dies At Dawn'

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The Mechanisms - 'Ulysses Dies At Dawn'

The Mechanisms - 'Ulysses Dies At Dawn'

The Mechanisms - 'Ulysses Dies At Dawn'

The Mechanisms - 'Ulysses Dies At Dawn'

The Mechanisms - 'Ulysses Dies At Dawn'

Steampunk Storytelling Space-Pirates The Mechanisms are raising money for a new album, entitled 'Ulysses Dies At Dawn'

Steampunk Storytelling Space-Pirates The Mechanisms are raising money for a new album, entitled 'Ulysses Dies At Dawn'

Steampunk Storytelling Space-Pirates The Mechanisms are raising money for a new album, entitled 'Ulysses Dies At Dawn'

Steampunk Storytelling Space-Pirates The Mechanisms are raising money for a new album, entitled 'Ulysses Dies At Dawn'

The Mechanisms
The Mechanisms
The Mechanisms
The Mechanisms
2 Campaigns |
Oxford, United Kingdom
£3,855 GBP 151 backers
385% of £1,000 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal
Highlights
Mountain Filled 2 Projects Mountain Filled 2 Projects


NOTICE (21/03/2013): As a reward for getting us to all of our goals so quickly, anyone who donates before the end of the run will be sent an email containing a code to download the live debut of Ulysses Dies at Dawn from bandcamp, in addition to all other perks they would receive. Thank you, all!

 

NOTICE (09/02/2013): Please get in touch with us before you try to fund a song - we currently are (accidentally) on 4/3 and will need to discuss it before we can safely offer any more. We probably will be able to do it, but it will take considerably longer.

 

Note that there are two further perks available -- we will write you a Story for £125 and a Song for £150.  See below for more details.

 

Roll up, roll up!  Now is your opportunity to assist the Mechanisms with their ongoing efforts to record their wonderous tales from the depths of the Universe!

What? No One Ever Warned You About The Mechanisms?

They're only the most amoral piratical scoundrels to have graced the Universe since before anyone can remember. Wanted for multiple counts of homicide, lunacide and petty theft. Probably responsible for the destruction of the Moon, partly responsible for the downfall of the Cole Dominion, and definitely responsible for the chaos that happened downtown in the City last year. Their only weakness? Sometimes their programming forces them to put a halt to their fun and tell anyone who will stop to listen a tale from their past.

On another world, we're a roughly nine-piece band from Oxford, England. We've been described as "a character-band of lovable space-pirate-misfit-immortals mixing steam and cyberpunk" (Sabotage) whose "thrilling yarns" (TimeOut) make for a "thrilling, guttural steampunk-pirate mythology!" (EdFringe Review).

So.  What Do You Want?

After the success of our first album, Once Upon a Time in Space, which we successfully funded on Indiegogo last year before taking it to a well-reviewed run at the Edinburgh Fringe, we're looking to record our second album, Ulysses Dies at Dawn. That's the word on the street, at any rate, if you talk to anyone who saw what went down at Calypso's Bar the other night. Who is behind the thuggish band known as the Suits - Heracles, Ariadne and others? What is Ulysses's secret? What is hidden within the security of the Vault?

How Can I Find Out?

Pre-order our album from this campaign! We'll be using the funds generated from this to pay for recording, producing, printing, and all the rest of it. Depending on what kind of total we reach, the results will be something like this:

  • £1,000 produces a studio recording in a simple cardboard case.
  • £1,300 produces a studio recording in a jewel case.
  • £1,500 produces a studio recording with a colour booklet - this is what we're ideally aiming for!
  • £2,000 and we'll spend longer in the studio, making for a much tighter recording.
  • £2,500 and we'll extend the CD booklet into a veritable treasure-trove of detail and information.

If you want to listen to some of what we do, take a listen to our Bandcamp where you'll find our first album and a few other tidbits, as well as a live recording of the debut of this set - so you know what you're getting in yourselves in to.

Hmm.  And What's In It For Me?

  • A shiny album of dark musical storytelling?
  • OK, you're a hard sell.  Have a look at the list of perks.  There should be something there to tempt you, from our personal remarks on your CD taste to an opportunity to have a small hand in the Mechanisms universe.
  • Note that YOU RECEIVE EVERY SINGLE PERK BELOW THE LEVEL THAT YOU SELECT. For example, want a Poster? You'll get dice, and a patch, and Jess's CD, and a personalised signed CD as well.
  • Please note that there are TWO MORE PERKS on offer!  For £125, you can remind us of an incident in the Mechanisms' past that we've forgotten, and we'll write you the STORY of those events.  And for £150, we'll listen as you explain to us a SONG that we have temporarily mislaid -- and then we'll go away, learn it, record it, and henceforth it will be part of our repertoire!  See below for more details.
  • Donate £70 or more and we'll note down our personal thanks for your contribution in the album booklet!
  • ...We'll give you our eternal gratitude?
  • Still no good?  I guess you'll just have to move along, then.  Sadness.

I Want To Join Your Crew And Help With The Cooking So You Can Concentrate On Your Music Please Let Me In?

That's...  Kind of you.

If you want to help us in other ways, how about this?  Share this everywhere!  Any social service you may frequent (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr...), any anti-social services you may frequent (Facebook, Twitter...you get the picture), any non-virtual society you may frequent.  Just tell people.  Especially if you reckon there's an outside chance they might have an interest in steampunk musical storytelling.  The more people know, the better the album will be.

And thank you!  The Mechanisms may be ungrateful bastards but we really appreciate all your support.  Hopefully you'll enjoy Ulysses Dies at Dawn as much as we've enjoyed making it - and maybe see you at the Fringe or another gig sometime.

p.s. About Those Stories

Anyone interested in a Story or a Song - our thanks!  This is how it works.

For a Story (£125), one of the Mechanisms will scheme with you to develop a character, place, event, time, or other something, that is part of the Mechanisms universe.  Said Mechanism will then wander away and come back with a short story (several thousand words) concerning your created Thing and its collision with the Mechanisms.  We'll also publish the story on the blog, so we can't remove you from canon again later.

For a Song (£150), the same happens, except this time you can also suggest tunes and suchlike if you so desire.  (n.b. While we'll be happy to cover copyrighted material live, we don't have the resources to afford the licenses to record it.  Just so you know.)  Alternatively, we can come up with the tune ourselves.  When we've written the song, we'll record it (probably not in the studio, but as a decent home recording) and let you have a copy.  We reserve the right to choose to play it live at gigs and suchlike whenever we please.  We hope you don't mind.

Please note; These perks are limited to six (6) stories and three (3) songs. 

(These perks should be delivered by December 2013 at the latest.)

And a Caveat: yes you get to write canon!  But not too much canon.  We'll consider anything you suggest, but we'll veto anything that is totally inappropriate and you shouldn't expect to have a major hand in the main story arcs.  That said, try us!  We promise that if we have to let you down, we'll do it gently.  Enough.

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Choose your Perk

The CD Itself

£5 GBP
Valid for one (1) copy of the second Mechanisms album, "Ulysses Dies at Dawn". This will be produced in the physical compact disc (CD) medium, believed to be popular on your planet at this time. Virtual downloads will also be provided. Medium translators ("MP3 player", "CD drive") will not.
Estimated Shipping
August 2013
59 claimed

Signed CD

£10 GBP
As above, but the Mechanisms will sign their names or scratch their marks upon your artifact.
Estimated Shipping
August 2013
13 claimed

Personalised Signed CD

£15 GBP
As above, but the Mechanisms will take it upon themselves to personally improve, comment upon and deface your copy of the CD. Expect personal comments and the continuation of internal disputes.
Estimated Shipping
August 2013
16 claimed

Patch

£18 GBP
The Mechanisms have picked up a lot of junk on the travels. It's beginning to slow the ship down and getting rid of it would be good. Up for grabs here is a cloth patch of some description. n.b. While similar to those patches we gave you last time, this batch is different. Don't suppose you were having great difficulty choosing what to attach your patch to last time? This might solve that quandary a little.
Estimated Shipping
August 2013
7 claimed

Dice

£20 GBP
There is a gambling problem aboard the Aurora. While it is mostly Jonny's fault he's not solely responsible. People will keep on playing with him after all. In an attempt to limit the damage we're unloading as many of his dice as we can find -- there are so many we'll give two of the six-sided ones to all comers. (We would get rid of his cards as well but they're harder to find.)
Estimated Shipping
August 2013
21 claimed

Jessica Law's Second Album

£25 GBP
If left to its own devices, the Toy Soldier writes music under the pseudonym of Jessica Law. Such music is usually strange, concerns spivs and the like, and contains more mandolin than normally recommended. This is the second album that it has managed to get past the censors. See http://jessicalaw.bandcamp.com/ for more information.
Estimated Shipping
August 2013
7 claimed

Poster

£30 GBP
A large sheet of paper with the Mechanisms's mugshots plastered all over it. May well contain individual details such as the local police office authorisation stamp and some blue-tac remnants. Pay more than £30 and they might even scrawl their names on it for you.
Estimated Shipping
August 2013
6 claimed

Lyric Sheet

£40 GBP
Ivy has an encyclopaedic memory of all the songs that the Mechanisms have ever sung, and she's a fair hand with a pen to boot. She's offered to transcribe the words of any one of the Mechanisms' songs in her own hand, and even to illustrate it, if you like.
Estimated Shipping
September 2013
1 claimed

Marius's Journals

£50 GBP
Marius von Raum, the Aurora's medic, is convinced that he can salve the violent tendencies of the more dangerous (read: interesting) Mechanisms. His journals documenting his treatments have been the source of great mirth aboard ship; maybe they will be as amusing let loose upon the Universe?
Estimated Shipping
September 2013
1 claimed

Sketch by The Mechanisms

£60 GBP
A revealing glimpse into the inner workings of The Mechanisms' minds. After discussing your specific preferences, one of our crew will let loose their subconscious in the form of a pleasingly frenetic scrawl.
Estimated Shipping
September 2013
0 claimed

The Book of the City

£75 GBP
A Book shall be bound. Within such boundaries will be contained nigh on all of the information the Mechanisms have collected on the City, and their time there: lyrics, artwork, short stories answering those niggly little questions that any good story prompts. Re-printed within its pages will also be Pausanias's famous photographic scenes of the City. Note that while much of this content will be available online, it will never again be put down on paper.
Estimated Shipping
October 2013
7 claimed

Gunpowder Goggles

£100 GBP
Gunpowder Tim has experience with making goggles. This is possibly related to the accident with his eyes. In any case he has offered to give away some of his spares. They're made of leather and metal, and guaranteed to present a minimal radiation hazard. n.b. There are two further perks after this -- see the description for more details.
Estimated Shipping
October 2013
13 claimed
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