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N∆EON TE∆RDROPS – WATERS RISING


N∆EON TE∆RDROPS is a new artist alias from Norwegian techno and electronica veteran Per Martinsen, mostly known under his guise MENTAL OVERDRIVE. 

Stepping out of his familiar instrumental electronic productions and into vocal-based songwriting, N∆EON TE∆RDROPS explore influences of the synthpop and darkwave of his formative years, while aiming to put these influences into a more contemporary context. 

The music of N∆EON TE∆RDROPS was born out of his writing project PYRAMIDS ON THE MOON – a fictional autobiography in three parts where he explores three alternative timelines of his own life, and where each of his three imagined personalities create music under different artist aliases.

N∆EON TE∆RDROPS released the single AMNESIACS in 2021, reaching no 8 in the Deutsche Alternative Charts, followed by SHADOWSISTER in 2022, which reached no 12 in the same chart.

The new single WATERS RISING will be out on March 17th 2023, and takes us on a deep and melancholy melodic ride atop a slow beat suitable for the more soulful and mellow dancefloors.

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“PYRAMIDS ON THE MOON” NOW ON PATREON

A 50-year old electrician has a midlife crisis and starts making ambient music. A group of people in Berlin uses sound to induce the release of DMT in the brain in order to travel between dimensions, and a character named ∆EON walks the streets of London while rebelling against the digitally connected society they live in, as part of the “DisCon” activist movement. 

“Pyramids On The Moon – a multi-dimensional autobiography” is a work in progress, where the main body of work is a story about life and music in three parts, each describing an alternative timeline to the author’s own, where the three main “characters” create and release their music under the artist names WAVE∞FORM, MENTAL OVERDRIVE and N∆EON TE∆RDROPS respectively.

Although the three different versions of the author’s personalities exist in parallel universes, they are still somehow connected, and each one encounter different “portals” through which they become aware of the others, without necessarily understanding that these are other versions of themselves.

Through the process of storytelling, “Pyramids On The Moon” allows for exploring questions around identity and authenticity, both on a personal and professional level, and by shifting through the different modes of character the author can use the freedom of not having to be “oneself” to open up for new forms of musical expression.

The text has so far been posted chapter by chapter on the project website, www.pyramidsonthemoon.com, and the musical output of the three artist can be found at the project’s own page on bandcamp.com. 

Some of the music has also been made available as official releases through the label Love OD Communications, and a series of NFT’s connected to the project has been dropped at objkt.com. 

You can now support the further development of the story and its connected music by becoming a patron at patreon.com.


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MENTAL OVERDRIVE & FLASH ATKINS – WHERE?

Paper Recordings‘ subsidiary Paper Wave will release Where? – a collaboration between Mental Overdrive and Flash Atkins on April 13th.

Where? started life in Mental Overdrive’s Tromsø studio when Flash was visiting in 2019. Analogue and modular synths were broken out and record collections raided as they threw down and got to work. The result is a psychedelic head trip into the far reaches of jazz and Balearica that comes on like E2E4 if it had been made in Africa. Shuffling afrobeat, xylophone, field recordings and chants hypnotise as the bass locks in.

Manchester producer Daco delivers a mix of pure class with nods to MAW and 90s NYC tribal house. It is a percussion driven track of soulful deep beats as keys and samples ricochet. 

Cal Gibson and Mark Limb take things subterranean with their bass heavy BCB dubbed version. Spacey atmospherics delayed broken drums and arps over crisp production make it a go-to for heavy ambience and fans of The Orb.


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PYRAMIDS ON THE MOON

Dear friends and followers. Firstly I would like to apologise for the recent low activity on this page. The reason is that I’ve been busy working on a new project called “Pyramids On The Moon”. The project has been dubbed “a multi-dimensional autobiography”, and consist of stories about my own life as imagined in three alternative timelines. Coincidentally, all these three versions of myself make music, and also quite coincidentally, one of them makes the music of Mental Overdrive. The output of the other two is of a slightly different form and shape, but hopefully you might still find it interesting if you’ve been following my output over the last three decades. If this sounds like it’s worth checking out, you can take a look at the new project’s Bandcamp page. In addition to the music, the story itself will also be posted in episodes of what I’ve called a “sonic novel”. The first episode is already up on the page. There’s more to come, so follow the page if you’d like to get updated. Thanks for your time! (Illustration by Lasse Marhaug)