A Civilian in Leather: The Home Current Interview

Near the start of his most prolific year to date, Martin Jensen gives some behind-the-scenes insight into The Home Current

In a go-fast era where creativity is too often expected to burn brightly from the very beginning, Martin Jensen’s slow-smoulder trajectory with The Home Current has been paradoxically refreshing. Having first become acquainted with the Danish-born and now Luxembourg-based Jensen the best part of a decade ago at the start of his tenure co-running the groundbreaking Second Language label alongside Glen Johnson (Piano Magic, Textile Ranch) and David Sheppard (Snow Palms, Phelan Sheppard, et al.), it’s been a low-key pleasure watching his own one-man electronically-fashioned produce grow at an organic pace until the time was right for a substantial sonic harvest.

Having given us a gradualist gamut of compilation tracks, remixes and singles since 2010 for Second Language, Static Caravan and Polytechnic Youth, Jensen finally delivered his long-awaited full-length debut – Another Way of Falling Apart – as The Home Current for the latter imprint in 2018. Now into full late-bloomer flourish, this year sees the arrival of no less than three albums and a handful of singles/EPs for Jensen’s home-built yet globally-minded enterprise.

Whilst some of these releases are scheduled to slip out in the coming months via the already associated Static Caravan and Polytechnic Youth, the first substantial statement comes in the shape of the Civilian Leather LP on the new extra home of Castles In Space. Preceded by a tie-in lathe-cut 7”/digital bundle EP through the same outlet, the new long-player takes The Home Current into even more diversified dimensions than on the amorphous Another Way of Falling Apart. Hence, guest vocal-led cuts featuring omnipresent shape-shifter Oliver Cherer (“Confetti”) and Our Broken Garden’s Anna Brønsted (“Leave Your Fears”), respectively bring in goblets of synth-pop squelch and elegiac Cocteau Twins-meets-One Dove blissfulness to act as enticing entry-points.  Elsewhere, there are refractions of early-OMD (“Sharing Senses Still”), pulsing ambient-technoscapes (“Above Before”), nods to Kraftwerk’s somewhat misunderstood Electric Cafe (“Pleasure Puppets”), diced-up mid-80s New Orderisms (“Panzer Fever”) and rippling Tangerine Dream-laced sprawl (“Tin Foil Express”), which collectively confirm Jensen’s ripening craftmanship and extending reach.

With such a run of sustained productivity set to dominate the Concrete Islands listening pile throughout the rest of 2019, it seemed an appropriate juncture to converse with Martin Jensen on how he got here with The Home Current and where he’s taking things next.

Although you’ve been a DJ for many years I believe, you came to making your own music as The Home Current relatively late in life. Can you explain how you shifted from the being the spinner to the spun?

I actually started making music alongside my DJing back in the early 90s as part of Danish act Black, Blue’n’Purple. We never got signed even if it was a close call, so I guess one can call The Home Current the result of a rather long maturing process over the past few decades. Better late than never I reckon.

What began with a slow drip of embryonic compilation tracks between 2010 and 2013 became a trickle of singles and one album between 2015 and 2018. You’re now set to give us a flood with three albums and several more singles across 2019. Have you become steadily more prolific or has it been more to do label logistics catching-up with your steady stockpiling of material?

I have indeed become a lot more prolific over the last couple of years than when THC first started out. I don’t really stockpile material as such even though Civilian Leather contains two tracks from an otherwise shelved album from a few years ago.

Was the initial gradualist release rate actually quite helpful in defining and refining your craft, even if it might not have been entirely by choice?

Yes, that’s probably fair to say. As I’m into many different kinds of music, having slowly started to drip-feed various tracks and learned how they have fared in the world, I have brought that experience back into new music. Having said that, THC will most likely always be an outlet for whatever takes my fancy in the spur of the moment when I go in my studio. I rarely plan too much in advance.

The release of last year’s debut Home Current LP on Polytechnic Youth, Another Way of Falling Apart, certainly seemed to be a turning point both in terms of creativity and visibility. How do you feel about the album now it’s been out a little while?

Another Way of Falling Apart was – and remains – a massive milestone for me. For many years I never thought I would ever get around to record, let alone release, an album and then suddenly there it was. To hold a physical copy in my hands for the first time was tremendous and quite humbling. I like to think it was a decent calling card for THC album wise.

Given that you’ve put out quite a lot of limited singles and have more in the pipeline, primarily as lathe-cuts, would you like to have them anthologised some day or as a keen vinyl collector yourself are you happy to have them stay scattered?

Oh, I would absolute love to have them collected on a deluxe gatefold triple vinyl one day!

The first of the three albums you have scheduled for release this year is Civilian Leather via Castles In Space. How did the pieces for it come together as a finished set?

Yes, as mentioned there are two cuts from that shelved first album, the ones that feature Anna Brønsted and Oliver Cherer respectively. The other tracks came into being during 2018.

How did those gorgeous guest vocal collaborations come about with Oliver and Anna? Are such hook-ups something that you’d like to explore further in future?

I know Anna and Ollie from my Second Language days and I’m forever grateful for their wonderful contributions. I’d certainly be up for doing more collaborations going forward.

Without being too technical, what kind of set-up do you actually use to construct your recordings?

I use a system in which synths, found sounds and samples revolve around Cubase with the occasional bass and guitar added to proceedings.

Your sources of inspiration are harder to pin down than many of your labelmates, given there are seemingly far more techno, house and ambient influences at play. Who and what has inspired you the most generally with The Home Current? Some have suggested early-R&S Records and Warp Records artists, 80s 4AD, classic as well as lesser-known Factory Records wares and Chris Carter…

Phew, that’s a tough one. I certainly grew up on labels like R&S, Warp and Factory/4AD/Editions EG, but also US labels like Nu Groove, Movin’, Emotive, Strictly Rhythm, Nervous and Transmat/Metroplex were a huge influence, as were Les Disques Du Crepuscule, Def Jam, Sugarhill, Tommy Boy etc. etc. Also, jazz/soundtracks/library/kraut/dub. The list goes on! More than anything THC is the sum of my record collection.

You’ve mentioned on Twitter having some “deep house-y” tracks in search of a label home, can you say more about those?

With my musical past partly rooted in the dance boom of the late-80s, early-90s, I guess it was inevitable it would come to this. I’m happy to be able to say that these tracks are now spoken for, as Castles In Space will release them on a 12” EP called Palermo Traxx later this year.

What can we expect to hear on the ensuing albums you have scheduled with Polytechnic Youth and Static Caravan later this year?  Are they cut from the same cloth or do you feel that they have distinct personalities?

The PY album, called Not Our Kind of Vertigo, was actually created specifically with PY in mind. It’s a collection of rather stripped-back, mostly up-tempo tracks centred around simple basslines and synth motives. The Static Caravan album is called The Splendour of Change and it probably owes more to the Another Way of Falling Apart sonic sphere.

You’ve also done some great remixes as The Home Current – for the likes of Colleen, Tomorrow Syndicate and The Heartwood Institute – how you do approach remoulding the works of others in comparison to how you work on own material?

I absolutely love doing remixes as I find it incredibly rewarding to work with other artists’ precious sounds and textures. My approach to remixing is quite similar to working on my own material – you try to catch an idea when it presents itself and hope you can see it through without too many detours.

Is there anyone else that you would like to remix given the choice? And who would you like to remix The Home Current?

I would really love to remix One Dove if they were ever resurrected. In terms of somebody remixing THC, I would be in seventh heaven if Flemish composer Wim Mertens offered to sprinkle some of his magic over a track of mine.

You’ve moved from Denmark to the UK and are now in Luxembourg. How much has your cross-continental living informed how you operate and create your music? Is there much home-grown music in Luxembourg to recommend?

I’m actually not sure how much all this moving around has influenced my music – the set-up has largely remained unchanged, however, the view from my studio has changed. These days I can see red and black kites soaring in the skies when I look out my window, in London it was mostly foxes and grey squirrels in the garden. I am yet to dive into the Luxembourgish music culture so will have to come back to you on that one.   

Your mixtape for Concrete Islands gave us a fantastic insight into some alternative Belgian music that many of us remain in the dark about. Where would you recommend people start after checking out your mix?

I would recommend checking out the B9, Belgian Cold Wave compilation, which was originally released on Sandwich Records in 1981. LTM did a fantastic reissue a couple of years ago that came with ten additional tracks – a solid entry point. Another crucial compilation is the Coal Heart Forever album, which came out on Sub Rosa in 1988. Iker Spozio pointed me in its direction a few years ago, as I’m a huge fan of Kaa Antilope. Their entire output features on this record – do yourself a favour and check their song “The Break Of Day”.

You were a co-manager of the pioneering Second Language label for a few years and you’ve since had your own releases on other much-loved micro-labels. How important have the experiences of being on all ends of the record-releasing process – from collector to curator to creator – been to you?

The lasting take-away from my various handles on the music industry would be: always be decent.

What else do you want to achieve as an artist and an omnivorous culture lover?
I would love to try and score a movie and I have also promised myself to try and make a hip-hop album one day. Do you know a good rapper?

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