Copenhagen based TVIVLER (ex- Lack, Children Of Fall, Obstacles) are about to drop their debut full length “EGO” on their own Negativ Psykologi Records. The album is the sequel to a trilogy of 7” EPs named Negativ Psykologi #1-3 and will be released on April 3rd 2020. Today, we’re giving you a special first listen of 2 of their new tracks, Tvangslogik and Kandidat.
EGO is an album of courage and defiance. It is an album about relations and relations to self, about knots and inner monstrosities. It is songs in the neoliberal Copenhagen, songs from late modern life, songs about the insides of capitalism, about keeping up without holding on. It is an album of songs about reclaiming life from hopelessness. About wanting and committing to what is important.
The fifteen songs on the album channel inspiration from both straight up punk rock, ambient drone and noise rock: drums, bass, guitars, and voice. Each song has been cut to the bone; it’s pure maximalism. The album is a tribute to punk rock at its purest but also challenges the dogmatism that often comes with it.
The album was recorded by Sune Kaarsberg and Christian Ankerstjerne in Black Tornado Studio, Mixed by Scott Evans (Kowloon Walled City, Sleep, Wren, Les Art) and mastered by Brad Boatright. Two of the songs feature saxophonist Henrik Pultz Melbye from Danish experimental rock.
Tvangslogik
Kandidat
The band commented:
Besides the more obvious and primary references to our age of unsustainable modernity and liberal late capitalism, the title EGO also refers to our creative processes as a band. We are constantly balancing the fact that we are a group of individuals – each with his ideas and opinions – with the collective processes in which we give way to the rule of the band entity and the common ground. We are pretty much an anarchistic organization, which is a challenge, not because of anarchy in itself, but because of humans.
The ego is modernity’s ubiquitous superstar or maybe a symptom of the zeitgeist. From influencers over the talking class to the paranoia of the xenophobe. We tend to praise the ego as something most authentic; a true core we need to cultivate. However, we often forget that the ego, most of all, is but a narcissistic sediment; the individual’s fantasy about coherence and unity.
This album is itself the result of a collision between the narcissistic and collective forces. A collision utilized creatively rather than destructively.
Tvivler is Morten Ogstrup Nielsen (bass), Thomas Feltheim (guitar), Morten Clausen (drums) and Thomas Burø (vocals). In 2014, the band was formed on an ambition to write fast, dirty, intimate and violent music. That ambition was expressed in 2015 – 2017 in the form of three EP’s under the title Negative Psychology #1 – #3, and shows in Denmark, Germany, France, Czech Republic and Slovakia. In 2017, Tvivler performed at Roskilde Festival and went on to compose what was to become EGO.
All band members have been active on the Danish scene for a long time. Feltheim and Clausen were in the hardcore band Children of Fall and mathrock outlet Obstacles, Burø sang for Lack, and Ogstrup is still active with Town Portal. Throughout these bands the music has always been adventurous, expressive and energetic. Tvivler is the logical continuation of this spirit; it’s a punk band with equal love for Blondie and Brutal Truth.
Live shows
22.02 Copenhagen – Ungdomshuset
21.03 Aalborg – 1000Fryd
03.04 Copenhagen – Basement
06.04 Dresden – Zentralwerk
07.04 Leipzig – TBA
08.04 Brno – Kabinet Muz
09.04 Prague – 007
10.04 Paris – Le Cirque Electrique
11.04 Nancy – La Buvette
12.04 Lübeck – VeB
30.04 Humble – Musikefterskolen
02.05 Odense – Ilter Festival
Tvangslogik
This song is mostly about using the same violent means that are used against us. Physical and psychological violence begets more violence – sometimes against others, sometimes against ourselves; austerity and poverty leads to short term thinking and stupid decisions. It’s a song about not being able to overcome the limits imposed on you, and ultimately, it is about becoming similar, or identical, to those things that you hate.
Thomas Burø introduced this song’s main riff on a out of tune guitar at some band get-together one night. Certain riffs just catch on immediately, which was the case with this one. However, turning it into a song proved to be a challenge, because the chords and rhythmic structures seem to be working against the d-beat. It’s sort of contrapuntal. This lends the song some weird dynamics, which in the end is what we think makes it interesting.
Lyrics (original):
Du tog nogle tæv og kastede noget blod op. Det var mest af alt kvalmen ved at se dig tilbage. Vi bidrager ved at tilgive det onde. Vi bidrager mod os selv. Vi bidrager ved at tilgive det onde. Du sparkede igen og gentog din fortræd. Det var mest af alt klarheden ved intet at forstå. Nu gør du mod dig selv igen, hvad aldrig burde være gjort. Vi bidrager ved at tilgive det onde. Vi bidrager mod os selv. Vi bidrager ved at tilgive det onde i os selv. Tvangslogik, blindt raseri. Tag imod dine tæv. Forløs mig nu.
Lyrics (translated) – Forced logic:
You took some hits and threw up some blood. Mostly it was the nausea of looking behind you. We contribute by forgiving the evil. Returning the kicks you repeated your harm. It was mostly the clarity of understanding nothing. Again you do to yourself what should never be done. We contribute by forgiving the evil. Against ourselves we contribute. Against ourselves we contribute by forgiving the evil in ourselves. Forced logic, blind fury. Take your hits. Release me.
Kandidat
If only men would listen to women’s experiences they might begin to grasp the multitude of battles that women fight – big and small. There’s just so much that women deal with on a daily basis that men don’t even see. This is a song celebrating all the amazing and inspiring women we know. It is also a song hating all the idiots of our own gender.
The song’s a classical ripper; hard to write because it all to easily becomes pure maximalism with a constant peak dynamics curve. It requires variations to keep it moving, but in a subtle way as to not make it feel incoherent. It’s one of the very first songs we wrote for the album, after we rediscovered a bunch of shitty old demos while on tour in 2017.
The main riff is a tribute to Tragedy’s masterpiece Vengeance. It’s a record everyone should listen to, period. The riff is a paraphrase of a pretty generic punk riff that we quite obviously stole from that album, but we believe we made it our own by manipulating it just enough that something else emerges. Maybe it was Leonard Cohen, who said that it’s ok to steal as long as you know who you’re stealing from. The difference lies in conscious theft versus unconscious repetition.
Lyrics (original):
Hun ved godt hvem hun er, hun ved godt hvad hun skal. Det store nag, det lille had bragt til ophør. Endnu en kandidat til posten som smertensbarn. endnu en kandidat. Hvem har givet dig lov til at knække ånd og hvem har givet dig lov til at bryde sjæl? Du er blevet tyndere, min ven. Jeg ved godt hvad du er ude på, for jeg kender det blik og jeg hader det. Hun ved godt hvad de er og hun ved godt hvad de gør. Den kæmpestore vold bragt til tavshed. endnu en kandidat til posten som smertensbarn. Endnu en kandidat.
Lyrics (translated) – Candidate:
She knows who she is, she knows what she must do. The great grudge, the little hate brought to naught. Yet another candidate to be the child of pain. Yet another candidate. Who let you snap the spirit and who let you to break the soul? You have grown thinner, my friend. I know your intent for I know your look and hate it. She knows what they are and she knows what they do. The great violence silenced. Yet another candidate to be the child of pain. Yet another candidate.
