Disarmingly Charming contains music, sounds, songs and words written, materialised and otherwise channelled by Roi Robertson, who’s been releasing electro/ techno/ industrial influenced music under the name Mechanical Cabaret since 1999. After 2016’s decidedly darker, more experimental ‘Ortonesque’ album released on Chicago based WTII Records, this new album is classic Mechanical Cabaret, in something of a return to the more bouncy and kinetic post-industrial techno-pop style of their earlier releases, with plenty of insightful, sardonic lyrics delivered in Roi’s inimitable deadpan voice, with an ever present hint of black humour. With the release of ‘ Disarmingly Charming ’, they’ve now released 8 albums, as well as many singles/EPs to date. The album was played, performed, programmed, sampled & recorded by Roi at The Parlour in Highgate, London, and also by keyboard player Stephen James Bellamy at Twyford Road studio in Harrow, between the years 2017 and 2019. It was engineered, mixed, and produced by both Roi and Stephen. The artwork, layout and graphic design was created by long-time Mechanical Cabaret visual collaborator, the artist Adam Cavill.
1. Allow It
2. Perverse In Reverse
3. Quixotic Expectations
4. Black Mirror
5. Everything Is Energy
6. Interesting Times
7. Poshlost
8. 304 Holloway Road
9. Skating On Thin Ice
10. A Swan Song