Leaving Normal – Martin Rushent (July 11th, 1948 – June 4th, 2011)

“In my experience, the longer you spend making a piece of music, the more likely it is to be a pile of shit!” – Martin Rushent

This man (affectionately known as “the fifth Stranglers”), engineered/produced a lot of my early favourite records, especially the first three albums by THE STRANGLERS & the first three of BUZZCOCKS albums too!

Add in recordings by bands such as XTC, GENERATION X & 999. Just listen to these bands’ other albums without his touch, and they are rather piss-poor isn’t it? For those who are not familiar with those bands, Martin produced JOY DIVISION’s early demos as well. Well, the list goes on. We have so much to learn from this si-fu.

Have a good rest, boss. Thank you.

note: I’ve spent countless of hours listening to his work; coming back from school putting the albums on and sitting there rapt with utter amazement and indescribable bliss. And to this day, I would visit them again and again. Don’t think I’ll ever be tired of listening to them.

Here’s one of them, from Stranglers’ 3rd album 1978 “Black & White”

Play LOUD and listen to JJ Burnel’s bass!!

[audio:TheStranglersToilerOnTheSea.mp3|titles=The Stranglers – Toiler On The Sea]

memorial page: https://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_216490505038835&ref=ts
the report: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13663325

Here’s an excellent article on Martin, describing his recording techniques and such:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb07/articles/martinrushent.htm