Linda Perhacs - Parallelograms
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Linda PerhacsEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
Format: Import
CD Release Date: 2005-10-17
Music Label: Wild Places
Soundtracks:
- Chimacum Rain
- Paper Mountain Man
- Dolphin
- Call of the River
- Sandy Toes
- Parallelograms
- Hey, Who Really Cares?
- Moons and Cattails
- Morning Colors
- Porcelain Baked Cast Iron Wedding
- Delicious
- If You Were My Man
- If You Were My Man
- Hey, Who Really Cares?
- Chimacum Rain
- Spoken Intro to Leonard Rosenman
- Chimacum Rain
Free Music Notes for Parallelograms
Free Music Review: A true "lost treasure"
Hit: 5 Stars
Linda Perhacs 1970 album "Parallelograms" stands as one of the great lost treasures of the singer/songwriter boom of the early 1970s. Described by Richie Unterberger as one of the best lost folk-rock albums of its era, "Parallelograms" is actually quite different from anything in the genre. With its instrumentation of acoustic guitar backed up by percussion, horns, harmonica and a limited amount of electric guitar and bass, "Parallelograms" sounds more like Can minus the electronics than anything singers like Joni Mitchell or Judee Sill were producing at the time. In places, like on the beautiful, yet touching title track, it actually sounds truly ambient, yet when I heard this in a local record store after buying it, I felt quite shocked!
The opener "Chicamum Rain" is quiet and touching, but the second track "Paper Mountain Man", with its assertive vocal and cerebral lyrics satirising hippie culture, is one of the true lost wonders of the 1970s. The way in which a harmonica blends with the guitars and percussion rather than act as a solo instrument is surprising, and Perhacs' delivery was surely the most assertive statement by any woman in rock to that point. "Dolphins", "Call of the River" and "Sandy Toes" return to the ambient sound of the opening track and back it up with beautiful poetry of greater literacy than anything coming from female singer/songwriters of the time. Nonetheless, the title tune, a multi-part piece despite being only four-and-a-half minutes long, is even better. Perhacs manages to make music that truly sound like later "new age" without becoming in any way soppy: even the truly ambient middle part has great energy due to the deep breathing from the saxophone.
"Moons and Cattails", besides having some superb poetry ("the soaking taste of leaves/the cooling memory of shadows"), manages to combine the two approaches on "Parallelograms" into one tightly knit song with a quite unique sound. The flute at the beginning has a quite echo-like sound but is still clearly a flute, whilst the power of the dense guitar line exceeds almost anything from the era. The long fermatas in Perhacs' voice add to the experience further. "Porcelain Baked Cast Iron Wedding" highlights the more assertive side of Perhacs, whilst "Morning Colours" has many unexpected turns amidst its quiet tone. "Delicious" is poetry at its purest - poetry that really rhymes - and with Perhacs' beautiful yet deep at sometimes haunting voice, the chorus expresses sensual desire like a true poem should.
The bonus track "If You Were My Man" is very different from anything on the original album with its eerie piano sound, but does fit with the ambient sound of the record as a whole. Perhacs also showed herself a very versatile singer with her quiet tones contrasting with "Paper Mountain Man" is a surprising way.
Although a challenging work compared to, say, Judee Sill, Essra Mohawk or even Laura Nyro at her most challenging, "Parallelograms" is undoubtedly unique among the singer/songwriter gems of the early 1970s. With two of the finest songs from that era ("Paper Mountain Man", "Moons and Cattails") a unique, ambient sound and some of the most cerebral poetry from any female singer/songwriter, "Parallelograms" is a lost gem that deserves the attention of serious music fans.
Parallelograms Poster
Remastered & expanded version of 1970 from the mysterious Linda Perhacs. Includes 5 previously unreleased bonus tracks, 'If You Were My Man' (demo & studio versions), 'Hey, Who Really Cares' (with intro), 'Chimacum Rain' (demo), Spoken Intro to Leonard RoFolk Music CDs
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