Martin Rushent Special

Martin Rushent was an English record producer, best known for his work with The Human League, The Stranglers and Buzzcocks.


Rushent expressed a desire to move away from guitar bands, and bought a Linn LM-1 drum machine, Roland MC-8 Microcomposer and Jupiter-8 synthesiser to learn sequencing and synthesis techniques. Rushent set up his own studio, Genetic, with Synclavier and Fairlight CMI synthesisers and an MCI console. He spent £35,000 on air conditioning alone, and had a Mitsubishi Electric digital recorder costing £75,000.

Rushent used his Roland equipment to record Pete Shelley’s first solo album, Homosapien. Originally demos for the planned fourth Buzzcocks album, Shelley and Rushent deemed the recordings releasable, and Shelley was signed to Island Records. They were heard by Simon Draper of Virgin Records, who asked Rushent to produce The Human League. Rushent’s work on the group’s 1981 album Dare earned him a BRIT Award in 1982 for Best British producer.
Rushent’s production on Dare frustrated the group’s guitarist Jo Callis, as the only guitar on the album was used to trigger a gate on the synthesiser. Singer Susanne Sulley was also frustrated by the lengthy process of Rushent’s synth programming. In 1983, Rushent walked out of his own studio after Sulley made an off-the-cuff comment toward him. Also in the 1980s, Rushent worked with XTC, Generation X, Altered Images and The Go-Go’s.

Rushent decided to take a break from production in the 1990s, and sold his assets – including Genetic Studios. He briefly took up a consultancy position with Virgin, but retired from the industry to raise his children.