PARALLELOGRAMS

Now here's an example of a real slow burner. LINDA PERHACS was a psychedelic folk singer with an angelic voice who composed eleven tracks for her debut album PARALLELOGRAMS which came out in 1970. Originally released on Kapp Records the album went completely ignored and garnered absolutely no attention upon release mostly due to the fact like many record companies of the day Kapp did zilch in terms of promotion. So discouraged was LINDA by the whole thing that she called it quits and set her goal to the more realistic career as a dental technician. As practical as she was nothing could have forewarned her that she laid down a cult classic that would garner attention slowly over the next 30 years and then a sudden surge in popularity in the 2000s due to a movement called New Weird America which is a group obsessed with all things psychedelic that were sitting in the vaults of history awaiting rediscovery. After this sudden surge in popularity after so much time LINDA finally released a 2nd album in 2014.

The music is often listed as progressive folk and it is to a certain extent in the arrangements and additional layers of sounds and vocalizations but it is only moderately so. It is more of an organic singer / songwriter kind of folk music that reminds me a bit of Joni Mitchell in the music department but her beautiful singing ability really makes me think of Ann Wilson of Heart especially on the acoustic folk-laden album "Dog & Butterfly." This is a pleasant little album where her vocal abilities are the star but the music itself perfectly backs it up. The psychedelic label attached may seem misguided when you give this a spin as it sounds like simple folk at first but as the album progresses there are some interesting developments especially on the title track. This definitely has a hippie vibe to the whole thing. It evokes the feel of a time of idealism and innocence of rural pastoral lands where people share their love of the Earth and nature and the desire to celebrate the world in the drop-out cultures that often resulted in communes of the day.

Albums like PARALLELOGRAMS only show how the big bang of creativity that was the late 60s and early 70s left an overwhelmed music loving population unable to digest every single thing that was released especially if it was scrapped immediately after its first pressing. Continuous thanks to the record labels who are reviving such long lost treasures like this one which show an angel sent from heaven to deliver her gift to the world only to have her wings clipped and forced to find an alternative way to get by in the world. In the case of LINDA PERHACS I do believe that it was a great loss for the world indeed. Luckily after many years of even trying to locate LINDA she was finally located and she shared the master tapes of this album and it has been completely restored and remastered.