Mental Overdrive is an alias of Per Martinsen, an artist and producer originally from the town of Tromsø in the far north of Norway. Per has been called 'the daddy of Norwegian electronic music' by DJ Magazine.

Since the late eighties he has released records under a long list of names, such as Mental Overdrive, Illumination/Chilluminati (with Nick Sillitoe), The Gruesome Twosome (with Samy Birnbach), Syamese, Confusion Club and so on - as well as a wide range of remixes of other artists. He was also involved in numerous early releases for Renaat Vandepapeliere and Sabine Maes' legendary proto-techno label R&S.