Love OD Communications

Junodownload writes: “It’s been a while since we last heard from Norwegian dance veteran and weekend situationist Per Martinsen, so it’s nice to know he’s still making music. Some may consider Everything Is Connected his most impressive work for some time – a four-track onslaught that touches on most of his familiar themes (techno, Norwegian disco, electronica). Lead cut “Time/Mind” offers ragged electronic disco thrills and a great “French Kiss” style stop/start breakdown, whilst “Shinjuku Station” sounds like a contemporary take on early YMO. “One Canada Square” harks back to Martinsen’s early days on R&S, before “The Tower” wraps things up in a glistening electronic style. Excellent.”

While Resident Advisor reports: “Tromsø, Norway’s Per Martinsen, AKA Mental Overdrive, is a big-picture kind of guy. After more than 20 years making electronic dance music, he’s recently been experimenting with unconventional formats and release strategies designed to disrupt music’s commodity status—from a record sold on eBay in an edition of one, to “Music for Food,” an offer to forego gig fees “in return for a nice local meal, maybe coupled with a glass of wine, and a warm bed after the gig.”

With his project “Everything Is Connected,” Martinsen ventures into new territory once again. This time it’s a narrative that revolves around a shadowy, split character who sounds a bit like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, as imagined by Haruki Murakami; unfolding across a series of posts to the Mental Overdrive website, it’s a sort of multi-media mystery, complete with text, photographs and audio players featuring new music and field recordings.

More conventionally, he’s also releasing a series of EPs. “Time/Mind” certainly captures the project’s cyber-punk vibe, with a thrumming combination of chords and arpeggios that channels Power, Corruption and Lies-era New Order through Carl Craig’s anthemic lens. It’s got a bit of a classic rave feel, complete with a charmingly cheesy vocal sample (“Time is of the mind”) and a warped breakdown where the beats slow to a standstill. There’s something almost kitschy about it, but that doesn’t detract from its considerable force.

“One Canada Square” is another throwback jam, with steely rave stabs over a slinky acid mutation, but the other two cuts break new ground. “Shinjuku Station” is a briskly swinging house cut at 132 BPM, but it doesn’t sound like what we’ve come to expect from that realm: the unvarnished analog synths sound a little like old Ada records, and the chirpy, churchly vocal samples are a world away from the R&B obsessions of Burial, Joy Orbison and their legions of imitators. “The Tower,” meanwhile, plays out like dubstep slowed to 118 BPM, even as it recalls Dutch electro at its most extravagantly apocalyptic.”

The original version of the single “Darklight” was released in December 2010 as a dedication to Wikileaks. This video contains footage from recent Occupy events, and you can download the special version of the track for free here.

On October 21 2011, artists Tim Exile, Mental Overdrive and Boska will make a special performance as part of the Insomnia Festival in Tromsø, Northern Norway.

The entire performance will be based exclusively on media extracted from the Occupy Wall Street protests currently happening across the US and parts of the rest of the world.

We therefore ask people who have either taken part in, or witnessed these protests first hand, to upload sound, pictures and video footage (see links below).

We will then use snippets of this media as the basis for a sonic and visual real-time event to show both our support of those who work for a more just global financial system, as well as to celebrate the immediacy of our wonderful world of present time communication technology.

On this last note we would also like to take the opportunity to pay our respect to the late Steve Jobs and his part played in the development of such technology.

To submit sounds, just goto our Soundcloud dropbox.

To submit pictures or videos, simply like our Facebook page and post your links on our wall.

As a special treat you can download this previously unreleased mix of the Mental Overdrive single “Darklight”. The original version was released in December 2010 as a dedication to Wikileaks.

In conjunction with FrostWorld Recordings we will be hosting our own night, “From Norway with Love”, at The Lexington in London on Wednesday October 5th.

The line-up for the night is:

Frost (live)

Boska (London debut show)

DJ Rune Lindbæk

The release of the new Boska vinyl 12″ ‘Arrival” b/w “Extraperennial” will also be celebrated this evening, as well as the new Frost remix 12″ “Parade (Jori Hulkkonen remix) b/w “The Magician (Boska remix) – both in a limited run of 300 copies through Love OD Communications.

Check out the Facebook event for more info.

Per Martinsen will perform The17 Score #378: ‘SELECT AN ALBUM’ over 6 weeks on his blog My Blurry Window.

An album from each decade will be reviewed every Monday on the blog, and the entire text will then be collected and posted at www.the17.org

Mental Overdrive’s live set at London’s Phonica Records from last month is now up on Soundcloud. Containing 90% new and unreleased material, this is the only place you’ll be able to hear these tunes – unless you’re attending a Mental Overdrive live appearance near you in the future.

Mental Overdrive will play two live gigs with exclusive new material on the following dates:

Club Transmediale, Paloma Bar, Berlin, Wednesday 2/2 2011

Phonica Records In-store, Soho, London, Friday 4/2 2011

Both gigs are in support of the compilation ‘Earthbound – Surfing the Apocalypse’, and copies of the limited edition CD-version will be available at both gigs. If you’re planning to attend the London show, you can also pre-order the CD here.

Peace is free.

eBay – as part of the current global financial system – will not allow anyone to give away anything for free.

In order to get any item listed here you are required to generate a profit of some kind.

The current global financial system is therefore an inadequate channel for creating peace.

The auction is open until 1200 CET Monday the 27th of December 2010, and you can place your bids above the starting price of 0.01 USD at this link.

Following the actions of Tied Revolverman’s brother in DNA, electronic artist Mental Overdrive, who has now openly announced his support for controversial global journalist network Wikileaks by dedicating his new single to the organization, the Revolverman feels that he has to take some precautions:

In order to avoid making life too difficult for those who might consider such support troublesome, and therefore would like to keep an eye on such an openly-speaking citizen of the free world, the object for sale in Sellout#006 – “WISDOM” is a recently removed wisdom tooth from Tied Revolverman/Mental Overdrive’s own mouth.

This way – in case a DNA-sample should be needed by any of the investigating authorities – it can simply be aquired upfront here and now through eBay at a minimum price equal to the actual cost of removing it at the dentist’s office earlier this autumn.

The auction is open until 1200 CET Monday the 20th of December 2010, and you can place your bids above the starting price of 175.30 USD at this link.

Mental Overdrive would like to announce the following statement:

Due to the overwhelming reactions following Wikileaks’ revelations over the last couple of weeks, I feel that I – both as an individual and as an artist – have to stand up and make my opinion known.

I think that the totally unheard of attempts by various authorities in trying to silence the messengers in this case is totally out of place in our day and age, and would like to dedicate my latest single “Darklight” to the Wikileaks organization and its global network of investigative journalists.

I think anyone who have the slightest love of freedom for themselves and their loved ones should make their opinion known by showing their support in any way possible – one should be very cautious towards the kind of powers that try to silence their critics. Such forces should be opposed as loudly, openly and clearly as possible – by as many as possible.

Keep silent, and soon there might not be many such voices left.

Tromsø, December 13th 2010

Per Martinsen AKA Mental Overdrive