Creatively reflecting on the idea that extreme self-focus requires extreme action to overcome – MB Project has launched a series of original songs, fusing clean vocal passion with retro-electronic production, as a means of countering the conflict and destitution of the modern world.
To introduce this approach, Extermination seems like the perfect starting point. The song blends distorted eighties synths and rhythms with dashes of electric guitar, and an ongoing female vocal that consistently returns to this enchanting melodic peak and concept – that Extermination is the only answer to a widespread celebration of self-interest.
The song later welcomes a dark-rap section, as we switch briefly for a middle-8, before diving into an instrumental outro that aptly allows the former thoughts to linger and provoke as the music rains down.
MB Project’s belief is that we are destroying ourselves, by choosing to focus on our own interests and gains, instead of on contributing to society and the world at large.
“If you put people motivated by unselfishness into a slum, they will turn it into paradise in no time. If you put people who are only motivated by self-interest into a paradise, they will turn it into a slum in no time. Adam and Eve lived in paradise until they tried self-interest and everything for us has been downhill since.”
It’s an understandable position, and one that’s explored in swathes throughout six original songs from the disenchanted yet still hopeful artist.
Musically switching gears slightly but maintaining the lo-fi hum of this nostalgic production, Annmar welcomes a mellow groove, and softly soulful vocals, along with a slightly more hopeful set of sentiments that lyrically reach out amidst this bass-heavy realm.
Then on the flip-side, passion and grit return, for the industrial rhythm and weight of Welcome to Our Machine. The melody is original and alternative again, a lasting trait throughout the MB Project catalogue. There’s also plenty of room for the instrumental to breathe, the overall artistry of each track proving as crucial as the lyrics and delivery in creating a provocative and intentional space. “Tomorrow we come for you.” resounds and intrigues as ever, wrapping up a fascinating progression, before the tempo ignites a whole new sound on its approach to the mid-section of the song.
Unpredictable is a great way to describe much of this music, and a term that quite cleverly encapsulates the nature of modern life under these strained and self-interested circumstances. However, occasionally things are kept a little more simple and subtle.
For I’ve Been Searching, we enter a more humble keys-led arena of personal contemplation. A song of self-scorn and desperation, an expression of the inherent need to be loved and to connect, alongside that equally familiar concept of self-hate and a lack of purpose.
Injecting a little more distortion, grit, opinion and perhaps judgment – Birds On Frankenstein is one of the most striking, recognisable, and intense tracks of the MB Project catalogue. It’s one for you own interpretation, a heavy bass and beat combo, with quiet to impassioned vocals elevating the essence of all things depicted as strange.
“I think I’d rather be anybody but me right now.”
Then finally, one last dash of possibility and hope. This World Belongs To Everyone is everything its title implies – a song devoted to unity and community, but also directly addressing the individuals who listen; there is time to change, there is always more, and regret is a heavy burden to carry.
The song is very literal in its diary-like portrayal of the self, and as such connects in a fairly theatrical but mainstream fashion, amidst a swirling to psychedelic electronic soundscape; a creative composition that’s almost six minutes in full. The music is easy to escape into, in the end, and once more, the ideas linger indefinitely, as the ambiance and groove fade out.
Find MB Project on YouTube.
