Mental Overdrive Hardware

Next up on Thomas Urv and Miss Mostly’s Ploink imprint comes a full-length album from the Godfather of Norwegian techno Mental Overdrive. The 9-track long player begins in apt live-jam style with ‘Totem’ and its chugging acid bassline with metallic hi hats snaking through the track’s duration. ‘Descent’ then maintains the high tempo with ethereal pads and a shuffling drum workout. ‘It’s All Good’ then slows things down with a stuttering groove laced with toms and a resonating melody, then comes ‘Dissolve’ - another twisted house jam filled with syncopated bleeps and jittery flanging percussion. ‘In Flight’ once again ups the ante with deep driving kicks and rolling bass, saturated with white noise and accompanied by industrial stabs, leading into ‘After The Lights’ that combines eerie harmonies with warm 303 squelches. A distorted loop introduces ‘Gone Wrong’ before it’s percussive groove and low-pitched vocal samples take hold, before a rumbling sub and rattling effects progress even deeper into the cosmic voyage in ‘Swagger’. Reverberating drums and spectral synths then merge, forming a new and unique rhythmic entity to conclude the package in ‘Truce’.