Now That's What I Call Steampunk! Volume 1
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''The Steampunk Album That Cannot Be Named for Legal Reasons'', originally known as ''Now That's What I Call Steampunk! Volume 1'', is the first album by the English
steampunk Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates retrofuturistic technology and aesthetics inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. Steampunk works are often set in an alternative history of the Victorian era or ...
band The Men That Will Not Be Blamed for Nothing. The album was released by Leather Apron on CD and digital download and as a
limited edition The terms special edition, limited edition, and variants such as deluxe edition, or collector's edition, are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as books, prints, r ...
set containing one track on a phonographic wax cylinder. It is the first time a musical track has been released commercially as a wax cylinder in Britain since 1922. The album was renamed in January 2012, after
EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...
gave the band three days to change the title or face legal action.


Production

The album was released commercially on 24 May 2010 on the band's own music label, Leather Apron, mainly as a CD and as a digital download. There was also a selection of limited edition boxsets which included phonographic wax cylinder records of individual tracks, created by Poppy Records. ''Now That's What I Call Steampunk! Volume 1'' is the first official wax cylinder release by a British band since 1922. So far, 40 have been made, of which ten were reserved for the band. Each limited edition pack contains the full CD, the track "Sewer" recorded on the wax cylinder, a "lyrics newspaper", and a set of instructions on how to build a
phonograph A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...
for less than £20 so that the cylinder can be played. The limited edition set is sold by Vagrants Among Ruins, the publishers of '' Steampunk Magazine''. The editor of ''Steampunk Magazine'', Ms C. Allegra Hawksmoor, said that one of the reasons for creating the cylinders was that "Wax cylinders are one of the first forerunners of recording technology, they're a piece of history that has been lost in the ceaseless drive for progress, and it's really nice to be doing something to bring a little of that back." It is not yet known if more limited editions set will be made for ''Now That's What I Call Steampunk! Volume 1'' or for any of the band's future albums. Hawksmoor claims that the idea for creating the wax cylinder was from the band member Andy Heintz.


Musical styles and themes

The music in ''Now That's What I Call Steampunk! Volume 1'' mainly has a steampunk theme, in that most of the music is based on the steampunk
sci-fi Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universe ...
genre and
neo-Victorian Neo-Victorianism is an aesthetic movement that features an overt nostalgia for the Victorian period, generally in the context of the broader hipster subculture of the 1990s-2010s. It is also likened to other "neos" (e.g. neoconservatism, neoli ...
ism. The style of the music has been described as: "Part Victorian
Music Hall Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as variety. Perceptions of a distinction in Bri ...
, part punk rock, stuffed full of barbed pop hooks and with tongue firmly in cheek". The songs include "Steph(v)enson", which is a song about four famous Victorians named either Stephenson or Stevenson:
George Stephenson George Stephenson (9 June 1781 – 12 August 1848) was a British civil engineer and mechanical engineer. Renowned as the "Father of Railways", Stephenson was considered by the Victorians a great example of diligent application and thirst for ...
,
Robert Stephenson Robert Stephenson Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS HFRSE FRSA Doctor of Civil Law, DCL (16 October 1803 – 12 October 1859) was an English civil engineer and designer of locomotives. The only son of George Stephenson, the "Father of Railway ...
,
Robert Stevenson Robert Stevenson may refer to: * Robert Stevenson (actor and politician) (1915–1975), American actor and politician * Robert Stevenson (civil engineer) (1772–1850), Scottish lighthouse engineer * Robert Stevenson (director) (1905–1986), Engl ...
and
Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...
. "Moon" concerns a
hot air balloon A hot air balloon is a lighter-than-air aircraft consisting of a bag, called an envelope, which contains heated air. Suspended beneath is a gondola or wicker basket (in some long-distance or high-altitude balloons, a capsule), which carries p ...
journey to
the Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the List of natural satellites, fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth ( ...
with
Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...
, H.G. Wells and
Captain Nemo Captain Nemo (; later identified as an Indian, Prince Dakkar) is a fictional character created by the French novelist Jules Verne (1828–1905). Nemo appears in two of Verne's science-fiction classics, ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' ( ...
. "Goggles" is a song praising "hard-fighting women mechanics", referencing the steampunk fashion of wearing
goggles Goggles, or safety glasses, are forms of protective eyewear that usually enclose or protect the area surrounding the eye in order to prevent particulates, water or chemicals from striking the eyes. They are used in chemistry laboratories and ...
. O'Neill claims that "'Goggles' is an explicitly feminist song." "Bedlam" is about people visiting the
Bethlem Royal Hospital Bethlem Royal Hospital, also known as St Mary Bethlehem, Bethlehem Hospital and Bedlam, is a psychiatric hospital in London. Its famous history has inspired several horror books, films and TV series, most notably '' Bedlam'', a 1946 film with ...
, a
psychiatric hospital Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociative ...
better known as the Bedlam. "etiquette" is about various rules concerning Victorian social behaviour and manners. "Charlie" is about
Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...
and ironically mocks the Victorians' reception of his theory of
evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...
. "Sewer (live)" is a cover of the
music hall Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as variety. Perceptions of a distinction in Bri ...
standard "They're Moving Fathers Grave To Build A Sewer", about graves being dug up to build new sewers. The recording of "Sewer" on the CD and download includes samples of a traditional English
pub A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...
taken from a
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
sound effects A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. Traditi ...
CD, and uses digital technology to create the impression of an old live recording. The version of the song released on phonographic cylinder is a 'straight' recording without sound effects or digital manipulation. "A Traditional Victorian Gentlemens Boasting Song" is a song in which each of the band members performs an act of
one-upmanship One-upmanship, also called "one-upsmanship", is the art or practice of successively outdoing a competitor. The term was first used in the title of a book by Stephen Potter, published in 1952 as a follow-up to ''The Theory and Practice of Gamesmans ...
on each other. "Blood Red" is a satire on the way the
British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
expanded and exploited other countries' resources. The song features reconstructed extracts and a rendition of the traditional
Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
male voice choir A men's chorus or male voice choir (MVC) (German: ''Männerchor''), is a choir consisting of men who sing with either a tenor or bass voice, and whose music is typically arranged into high and low tenors (1st and 2nd tenor), and high and low bass ...
song "
Men of Harlech "Men of Harlech" or "The March of the Men of Harlech" (Welsh: ) is a song and military march which is traditionally saidFuld, James J., ''The Book of World-famous Music: Classical, Popular, and Folk'', Dover, 5th ed. 2000, p. 394 to describe even ...
" from the film '' Zulu'' in the performance.


Reception

A reviewer in ''Steampunk Magazine'' said of the album: "For a long time, we have been waiting for a band that likes to mix a little punk into their Victoriana, and now, with the release of the Men's debut album ''Now That's What I Call Steampunk Volume 1'', we finally have it. The album is filled with guitar-and-drum-driven cockney punk songs, complete with the musical saw and comedy lyrics that have made the Men notorious." ''Freq'' described it as "the Victorian Wave of British Heavy Metal," referencing the
new wave of British heavy metal The new wave of British heavy metal (commonly abbreviated as NWOBHM) was a nationwide musical movement that started in England in the mid-1970s and achieved international attention by the early 1980s. Journalist Geoff Barton coined the term i ...
. ''
Rock Sound ''Rock Sound'' is a British magazine that covers rock music. The magazine aims at being more "underground" and less commercial, while also giving coverage to better-known acts. It generally focuses on pop punk, post-hardcore, metalcore, punk, e ...
'' magazine awarded the album 8/10. Jim Sharples of '' Big Cheese'' magazine said that the album was "Outstanding".


Track listing

# "Etiquette" – 2:10 # "Steph(v)enson" – 3:51 # "Bedlam" – 2:56 # "Goggles" – 2:30 # "Sewer (Live)" – 2:15 # "Boilerplate Daniel" – 2:09 # "Moon" – 4:00 # "A Traditional Victorian Gentlemens Boasting Song" – 2:14 # "Victorian Grindcore" – 0:14 # "Blood Red" – 4:17 # "Charlie" – 2:58


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steampunk Album That Cannot Be Named For Legal Reasons 2010 albums The Men That Will Not Be Blamed for Nothing albums