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LP
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SORC 1014LP
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2023 release. Gonzo psychedelic synth/drum madness from Down Under ca. 1974. Contains the mega-rare 7" single and four previously unreleased tracks from the same session. RIYL Bruce Haack, Residents, Cramps and all points between. Born in the U.S. but raised in Newcastle, New South Wales, John J. Francis fronted popular r'n'b, pop and pop-psyche bands The Sorrows, The John Francis Collexion, The Ghosts Of Electricity, and Magic across the mid-late 1960s. In 1970 he was approached by Dave Gibson to engineer, produce (and eventually manage) his Copperfield Sound Studios in the old Corn Exchange Building near Pyrmont Bridge in Pyrmont, Sydney. Through pure happenstance his unadorned 1972 singer-songwriter ode to alternative living "Simple Ben" was placed in the iconic surfer film Morning Of The Earth and has since become something of an Australian standard. Across 1972-1974 John also recorded four acclaimed LPs and had a Top Ten hit with "Play Mumma, Sing Me A Song." Recorded in studio downtime with friend and drummer Jim Yonge (from prog-rock band Pirana and a multitude of session work), Brute Force And His Drum was Francis' somewhat bizarre 'caveman with an Arp 2600' alter ego. Grunts, shouts and bawdy hollers punctuate mad synth riffs and prehistoric percussion. Two sides ("Weird And Wonderful" and "Strange") were released on a house label Copperfield 45 in 1974 and received sporadic airplay (even charting briefly in Canberra). That 45 now trades for hundreds of dollars amongst knowledgeable collectors of '70s Oz Psyche-Synth ephemera. Four further tracks were recorded during the same sessions ("King Of The Konga" was slated to be second, but ultimately unreleased, 45) and they make their first ever appearance here. John J. Francis left Copperfield Sound Studios in 1974 and would resurface two years later as the midnight-to-dawn DJ on Sydney's youth-orientated 2JJFM (a position he held for over a decade) until fading from public view and pursuing his lifelong passion for painting. After a long illness, John J. Francis passed away quietly in 2022 and Australia lost one of its most unique and under-appreciated musical figures.
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