NEW TO THE MECHANISMS?
are you interested in learning more about The Mechanisms? are you a new fan looking for more information? are you hesitant on where to start? did your friend aggressively send you this link? then this is the place for you!I've made it my mission to collect all of my various intro posts into one place, edit them, and then arrange them so that new fans (or people looking to get into The Mechanisms) have an easier time navigating!
WHAT IS THIS PAGE?
this is a place where you can find comprehensive explanations for The Mechanisms! whether you're a new fan, someone interested in listening, or just curious to see what's on the site, this is for you!here, I'll have general synopsis, album synopsis, quick character intros, and guides to listening and reading!this is NOT a fandom wiki. if you're looking for lore dives, I would look elsewhere! we have a fandom wiki with lots of trivia, but this site is more for people looking for a way to get into the mechs. if you're already a fan, this is all information you already have!!
WELCOME TO THE BASE OF THE LINKTREE!
this is the base of the linktree! here, you can find all of the pathways. feel free to explore. you can always get back here by pressing the 'base' button!
FAN OF THE MAGNUS ARCHIVES?
whether you're here from the devastating finale of The Magnus Archives or whether you just heard Jonny Sims mention his band in one of the Q&As, welcome!!! a large portion of the current Mechanisms fandom arrived here from The Magnus Archives, so most of us understand the ice-cold shock of hearing Jonathan Sims sing a song about gunning people down while maniacally laughing. some of us are still big fans of TMA while others have found that they prefer the space pirates to The Horrors! either way, we hope you enjoy your stay!now, are you ready? because I'm sure you've got questions, and I hope I have answers!
WHO'S HERE FROM TMA?The Magnus Archives, despite being a vasty different genre from The Mechanisms, have a lot of performers in both projects!alongside the obvious (Jonny Sims), you'll also find Frank Voss, Jessica Law, and Tim Ledsam in The Mechanisms. instead of facing The Horrors, this time around they're immortal space pirates!Frank Voss (they/them), who voices Basira Hussain (she/her) in TMA, plays Ashes O'Reilly (they/them) in the band! Basira and Ashes are extremely different characters--Basira may be a cop, but Ashes is anything but. Ashes enjoys crime, arson, and cheating people out of things. oh, and revenge.Jessica Law (she/her), who voices Nikola Orsinov in TMA, is played by The Toy Soldier (it/its) in The Mechanisms! funnily enough, Nikola and The Toy Soldier are actually quite similar!! both of them are neither living nor dead nor do they consider themselves as people! plus the whole inanimate object thing. TS makes the "doll" aesthetic a lot more silly, though!! quite frankly, it's just happy to be aboard the ship.Tim Ledsam (he/him), who voices Jordan Kennedy (he/him) in TMA, plays Gunpowder Tim (he/him) in The Mechanisms! they've... both got supernatural eyes after interacting with Jonny? Tim is a violently gleeful character with some deep-seated anger at the death of his best friend. also he blew up the moon.and, of course, we have:Jonny Sims (he/him), who voices Jonathan Sims (he/him), plays Jonny d'Ville (he/him) in The Mechanisms! Jonny (the pirate) is... a very difficult tone-shift from Jon (jarchivist). Jonny enjoys violence, violence, fun, violence and... violence! he's a shoot first ask questions never kind of guy, unless those questions get him a good story.IMPORTANT NOTE!TMA is a very different media from The Mechanisms, and while it's fun to point out all the similarities between the two, it's also important to remember that there are nine members of The Mechanisms. Jonny didn't write all the songs by himself. yes, there are copious amounts of tunnels, yes there are a startling number of invocations that open doors, but constantly comparing the Mechs to TMA takes away from The Mechanisms' clever storylines and characters! (though I too find the coincidence hilarious).(done here? scroll back up and click "base" to go back to the linktree! there, you can click to learn more about the crew, to figure out how to start, or to find more resources!)
INTRODUCING: THE MECHANISMS!!!
hello and welcome to a comprehensive introduction to The Mechs from someone who's done this probably too many times!!! here, you'll find a (hopefully) understandable introductory 'essay' into The Mechanisms with some brief history and explanations!ready? let's dive in :)
THE MECHANISMS.space pirates. liars. vagabonds. renegades. killers. thieves. war criminals.a... band.The Mechanisms -- sometimes shortened to "The Mechs" -- were a queer prog-rock/punk/folk concept band that began in late 2010 when Maki Yamazaki(she/they) (under the performance name "Doctor Carmilla") acquired "The Mechanisms" as her backing band to form the band known as "Doctor Carmilla and The Mechanisms." later, when Carmilla left to focus on solo work, the band changed their name to simply "The Mechanisms." they ended with a final concert in 2020 titled "Death to The Mechanisms" wherein they put their characters to a final rest, refuting the title of "immortal."now, The Mechanisms aren't just like any other band. apart from being chock full of queer artists in the 2010s, this band is also a performance band (similar to another band called Steam Powered Giraffe) and perform at live concerts completely in character. it's all a grand old show with The Mechanisms at the center! so while you might hear names like "Kofi Young" or "Rachel L Hughes" being thrown around, more often than not we (the fandom) are referring to the characters rather than the actual actors (respectively; Marius von Raum & Raphaella la Cognizi).SO WHAT'S THE STORY, THEN?good question!! every good story needs some interesting protagonists, and The Mechanisms certainly are a fascinating bunch!The Mechanisms are a crew of (immortal) space pirates roving the galaxies having fun if possible, violence when necessary, and if they're lucky? both at the same time! they're much less pirates that board other ships to plunder their loot, and more like... pirates of stories? that's not even a proper analogy because The Mechs aren't stealing stories, they're making them. usually by starting wars because they're bored. when you've been living for so long... well, wars are a pleasant distraction indeed!!the story mimics the meta -- largely in part to the improvisational nature of their performances -- so much of the things that happen to the 'real' band also happen to these space pirates (albeit a with a certain spin on things). and now, we answer the question of:WHO IS DOCTOR CARMILLA?you may recognize Dr Carmilla's name from a certain 1872 novel by the name of "Carmilla," the one about the lesbian vampire. in this particular version, our dear doctor is a lesbian vampire IN SPACE! and she's a (probably licensed) surgeon/doctor! and she's even transgender.now, the doctor bit is really quite important. you see, immortality isn't something you're just born with, not in this case. no, our silly space pirates went through quite a procedure to become this way! in (nearly) each Mechanism, Dr Carmilla replaced something in them that had broken beyond repair and fixed it up with metal and eternal life. yippeeee!!!!! immortality!!! eternal life!!!!!!! being doomed to live forever until the end of time!!!!!! (wait what was that last one?)as it turns out, immortality is kind of crummy. by the time they reach the seventh member of the crew, the doctor has an unfortunate accident with an airlock. given the way time works on their starship, she's "fallen" out of the airlock several times, but this one seems to be the one that sticks. for good or bad, Doctor Carmilla is gone. (Maki Yamazaki, the actor, left the band to focus on solo work.) and thus, "Doctor Carmilla and The Mechanisms" became simply just "The Mechanisms."RIGHT, THEN, WHAT'S THEIR MUSIC ABOUT?The Mechanisms do cyberpunk/steampunk retellings and adaptations of folktales and legends! they have FOUR main albums that have storylines spanning the entire album, TWO albums that contain single story songs, ONE single containing the story of Victoria Frankenstein, and ONE live concert album.their main story albums include:
[1] a folk-esque retelling of european fairytales as a galactic clone war to create "Once Upon a Time (In Space)"
[2] a high-tech retelling of the Odyssey (though with a focus on Odysseus' return to Ithaca) but including various other figures from Greek mythos as a heist/mafia story to tell the tale of "Ulysses Dies at Dawn."
[3] a western retelling of Arthurian legend as cowboys on a deteriorating space station (starring awful American accents) as the album "High Noon Over Camelot."
[4] a train murder mystery/cold case/cop drama/eldritch horror retelling of Ragnarök from Norse Mythos to create "The Bifrost Incident."READY TO START LISTENING?if you'd rather get more information, feel free to head back to base by clicking the button in the header! there, you can find more info about the crew or read the other intro catered towards TMA fans. if you click on the button in the footer, you can get to the official Mechanisms' website for even more information!and if you're just itching to continue, then let's go!
READY TO START LISTENING?
right, so that was probably A Lot of information!! but if you're ready to start listening, then we can launch in!!before we start, a quick fun-fact! many of the Mechs' songs are filk songs, meaning that they carry the tune of many songs you may already know. for example, the song "Favoured Son" is sang to the tune of "Rocky Road to Dublin," and "No Happy Ending" has the tune of the Tetris theme song!LET'S DIVE IN!as aforementioned, the Mechs have four main story albums. I recommend you start with one of those! you can really pick any of the four I brough up in the main intro, but Once Upon A Time (In Space) is always a good one because it provides a good way to be introduced into the Mechs' style of storytelling! also, this album features characters that are the most recognizable (Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, etc.).FOUR MAIN STORY ALBUMSwhile Once Upon A Time (In Space) goes through the clone war involving General White, the corrupt Old King Cole, the lost bride Rose and her wife Cinders, it also ends in a tragedy because... all of the Mechanisms' albums are tragedies. to quote one of the songs from this album, "there's no happy ending in sight for us." set to the tune of Tetris, of course.Ulysses Dies At Dawn is a more mellow album, taking Greek mythos and shoving it in a blender set to "cyberpunk mafia." if you've ever wondered what it would look like to have Ariadne, Oedipus, Heracles, and Orpheus on a heist team together, wonder no longer! this ending is very bittersweet with gorgeous violin and heart-wrenching vocals.High Noon Over Camelot (my personal favorite album) is a spin on Arthurian legend, only everyone is a cowboy. and they're in space. and they're transgender. and polyamorous. it's a delightful western wherein you get to hear British people try their attempt to sing in Southern American accents.The Bifrost Incident is a rock-opera retelling of the Norse myth of Ragnarök (the end of the world) only it's about a train in space. and also eldritch gods. and there are tragic space lesbians! this one has non-conventional storytelling and is structured differently from the rest of their albums, but it's a fantastic story and has excellent music!TALES TO BE TOLD ALBUMS (BOTH ONE AND TWO)the TTBT albums are collections of single songs that don't need to be listened in order. these collections include songs that relate back to the main albums, but don't connect entirely into the timeline or story. for example, the song "Alice" is set 60 years post-OUATIS.these albums also include some of the Mechanisms' backstory songs!! Jonny, Ashes, Brian and Tim have studio-recorded backstory songs that are included in the TTBT albums (respectively: 'One Eyed Jacks', 'Lucky Sevens', 'Lost in the Cosmos', and 'Gunpowder Tim vs The Moon Kaiser'.)these two albums are great to listen to after you've got a good grasp on how the Mechs do storytelling! if you want to, you are more than welcome to start here, though. 'Swan Song' is a great retelling of The Swan Princess, and it's also a beautiful ballad to start with if you'd like to start small!they've also got one single called 'Frankenstein' which is a cyberpunk retelling of (you guessed it!) Frankenstein. this song tells the tale of Victoria Frankenstein and her self-actualized AI.all of their albums are available on most streaming services, as well as on YouTube!!
THE CREW OF THE STARSHIP AURORA
alright. let's get into it. who, exactly, are The Mechanisms? the Mechs have around nine members (sometimes more depending on who you ask) and all of them have unique characters and backstories!! one of my favorite things about this band is that since there are so many performers, there's tons of different stories and lore and takes and it's a pleasant dive into the lore when the band is long gone.but enough about that. let's talk about the crew, shall we? (another friendly reminder that this is not a lore dive! this is very basic information, but enough for you to get a grasp on what's going on.)first of all, let's talk about THE AURORA, or rather their spaceship! Aurora is a sentient spacecraft! she was originally a moon but was later turned into a warship by Cyberian forces. she was part of their war fleet before Jonny liberated her with a game of Cyberian roulette. she is also in a romantic and sexual relationship with Nastya Rasputina, the engineer of the ship. (don't ask me how they have sex. I have no idea.)technically not a Mechanism, but I figured DOCTOR CARMILLA - (she/they) deserves an entry. Doctor Carmilla is played by Maki Yamazaki (she/they)! her name comes from the 1872 novel "Carmilla" and her character is also a lesbian vampire! the difference in that the Doc is in space. and is also a doctor (though it's unclear whether they're actually licensed or not). she's even transgender. Carmilla has a lot of songs that go through her backstory, but Exhumed & (Un)plugged from their Bandcamp page is a good start. her backstory involves her ex-wife (who was also a vampire?) and an alternate version of Earth. while she was aboard the ship, she served as the captain. at some point during her time, she suffered an "accident" with the airlock and "fell out" never to return again. the Airlock Incident happened shortly before the album 'Once Upon A Time (In Space)'.next, we've got JONNY D'VILLE - he/him
Jonny d'Ville is played by Jonny Sims (he/him)! while there's no canon mechanization order, most fans agree that Jonny was the first to be mechanized. For him, he's got a metal hunk of a heart ticking away inside his chest, a reminder that he can never die! which is usually a good thing. death kind of sucks, y'know? Jonny is the captain first mate of the starship Aurora! he's the lead singer and also plays the harmonica. his backstory involves a casino (and the subsequent burning of), his father (and the subsequent killing of), and a very interesting woman by the name of Doctor Carmilla. his backstory song is called One Eyed Jacks!NASTYA RASPUTINA - she/her
Nastya Rasputina, also known as Anastasia Nikolaenva Romanova, is the engineer (and girlfriend) of Aurora! as her name suggests, she is the space equivalent of Princess Anastasia, only transgender, lesbian, and cyberpunk! she has several fictions on the official website about her backstory (Cyberian Demons and Nomadic Spacers). her mechanism is her blood which... well, she's very dense now - literally - Nastya has quicksilver/mercury flowing through her veins instead of blood. in the band, Nastya plays the viola and violin! her backstory song was never recorded in a studio, but there are some (albeit poor quality) recordings on YouTube of it from the Lashings live concert. if you're curious, you can find Cyberian Demons (the song) here!ASHES O'REILLY - they/them!
Ashes O'Reilly is played by Frank Voss (they/them) who also plays Basira Hussain on The Magnus Archives! Ashes is a mob elite, an arsonist, and a criminal mastermind. they play the electric bass sing with an absolutely gorgeous voice! because of the events leading to their mechanisation, their mechanism is their lungs... which kind of explains why they smoke so much? though I suppose if you're already immortal then there's no harm. aboard the ship, they're the quartermaster! you can find their backstory song under the name Lucky Sevens.IVY ALEXANDRIA - she/her
Ivy Alexandria, played by Mogran Wilkinson (he/him), is the archivist aboard the ship! there's little known about her backstory, even by her, due to her mechanical brain and the circumstances of her 'death.' she plays a whole myriad of wind instruments, including (but not limited to) the flute, tuba, saxophone, euphonium, and recorder. her mechanism is her brain, like mentioned, but there are plenty of drawbacks to her robotic brain. apart from not being able to process her emotions properly, she also has an inability to remember her past. she can do large mathematical calculations in her head though! despite her role as an archivist, Ivy's backstory song is the only one played and not archived, so there's no record of her song (but we did know that it was called 'The Librarian'!).DRUMBOT BRIAN - he/him
Drumbot Brian is played by Ben Below (he/him) who also worked with Tim Ledsam on Softwire! Brian is the pilot of the spaceship (not that the ship really needs one, considering that she's sentient and all.) he, as his name suggests, plays the drums and also the banjo! he also sings, but not in his own backstory song (which you can find under the title "Lost In The Cosmos"). his backstory song really only details his near death, but it's still an incredibly gorgeous tune. Brian's got a complex backstory involving some fantastic (some might call it too good) doctoring, a priest, and rocketship. his mechanism is... everything save for his heart. consider him the anti-Jonny? along with his new brass and copper body he also got gifted world's worst light switch courtesy of the dear old doc. he's got a neat old morality switch that does exactly what you think it does (switches his moral view from Ends Justify Means to Means Justify Ends and vice versa).THE TOY SOLDIER - it/its
The Toy Soldier, also sometimes known under the alias Jessica Law (she/her) who played Nikola Orsinov, plays the glockenspiel and mandolin in the band! The Toy Soldier has no discernible role aboard the Aurora and seems more than happy to just be on board. it's made entirely of wood and is neither alive nor dead and is therefore already immortal (does it count as immortality if you're not really alive?). The Toy Soldier does have a song, but it's not a backstory song. TS' backstory involves a widow, the Salvation Army, and an angel. you can find its backstory on the official website under "The Story of the Toy Soldier"!GUNPOWDER TIM - he/him
Gunpowder Tim is played by Tim Ledsam (he/him) who also voiced Jordan Kennedy on The Magnus Archives. Tim Ledsam also worked on Softwire with Ben Below. Gunpowder Tim is the gunner on board The Aurora, which is an apt role to go to the guy with "gunpowder" in his name. he's the only confirmed human character, as his backstory is set upon the Moon of Earth and he hails from London (meaning he's the only canon British character). his backstory song is called "Gunpowder Tim vs The Moon Kaiser" and details the Lunar War in which Tim has quite possibly the worst time of his life. during the events of the war, he also accidentally burnt out his eyes so his mechanism is his eyes! he basically has built-in optifine now.MARIUS VON RAUM - he/himRAPHAELLA LA COGNIZI - she/her
MORE RESOURCES!!
there's a ton of resources available for fans of The Mechanisms! ranging from lyric videos to archival blogs, we've got 'em all!!lyric videos on YouTube by TheVoidSings
OTHER MUSIC
many members of the mechanisms have solo music!! I've taken the liberty to provide you with the resources to find the crew where they go by other names. ALSO on this page are suggestions for other music if you find yourself liking The Mechanisms!!THE MECHANISMS BY ANY OTHER NAME- not necessarily music, but many fans of The Mechanisms are also fans of The Magnus Archives! written by Jonny Sims, this horror podcast has similar storytelling elements that you might enjoy if you like The Mechs.
- The Toy Soldier as Jessica Law has lots of solo music! a lot of her music carries similar adaptation elements, like her song The Mermaid's Revenge that adapts The Little Mermaid. her music is available on Bandcamp, Spotify, and most other music streaming services.
- Kofi Young has music out on Bandcamp, Spotify, YouTube, and plenty of other services! you'll be able to hear their voice when they're not singing as an Angry Guy from The Mechanisms!
- Tim Ledsam, along with Ben Below, work together to produce music under the name of Softwire! you can find them at Bandcamp and Spotify.
- on his own, Ben Below also makes music! oftentimes, other mechanisms will appear in his works. he can be found on Bandcamp and Spotify!
- yet another team-up from Ben Below, he worked with R. L. Hughes to create music! they're on Bandcamp!
- and finally, R. L. Hughes has solo work! her album, Lolina: Origins, can be found on Bandcamp.IF YOU LIKE THE MECHANISMS...you might enjoy bands like Steam Powered Giraffe, The Forgetmenauts, or The Shaperaverse! these are all artists popular among fans of The Mechanisms, so I figured I'd toss out these names if you were curious! on the flip-side, maybe you didn't quite like The Mechanisms but you wanted to see if there were similar bands, this is a great list!Steam Powered Giraffe is an American steampunk rock band formed in 2008 that definitely reminds me of classic rock music! similar to The Mechanisms, they're a lore-based band; this group performs as a group of robots built in 1896 for war who've now chosen their own purpose as singers! their music gets existential sometimes and other times extremely wacky! this band is sort of like if The Mechanisms were more family friendly.
The Forgetmenauts are a folk-punk band that