PARALLELOGRAMS

Parallelograms (1970) is an album that just knocked my socks off from the first listen. This is really everything I look for in a folk album, though the music leans psychedelic, there is without a doubt plenty of progressive elements in the mix. The music is often minimalist, but is generally heavily layered with these very flowing vocal harmonies and subtleties. Most of the songs are led by acoustic guitars but there's actually a lot of different instruments and even electronics used all over the album. The opener Chimicum Rain has such an earthy and organic atmosphere that's really echoed in most of if not all of the following tracks. A couple minutes into the song it starts showing the first signs of some of the darker, more experimental psychedelia this album ends up dipping its feet in on later tracks. Call of the River and Sandy Toes showcase that as great as the vocal harmonies are, the melodies are equally as great throughout and often carry a lot of emotion. That brings me to the next track and one that really caught me off guard and that's the title track. This is a truly unsettling and perhaps even scary piece of music if you're not expecting it. The song opens with these very layered, intricate twisting vocal harmonies somewhat reminding me of Gentle Giant. However, unexpectedly the middle of the song just melts into absolute psychedelic avant garde chaos with these offbeat, somewhat menacing, dissonant vocals on top of a bunch of electronic sound effects and subtle instrumentals. What's really noteworthy during this section are the strange progressive production and panning techniques used almost similar to something like Pink Floyds "On The Run" from a few years down the line. There's a great term I could use to describe this song but to keep it PG, it's an absolute mindfork. Even when the main theme from the first couple minutes of the song fades in it doesn't matter cause you've already been transported to another universe. Anyways, the quality of music just doesn't drop on this album and every song is distinct and interesting. The closing track "Delcious" is another favorite of mine, the singing, hook and general flow of the song is just beautiful and it just leaves you feeling completely satisfied.

A hidden gem and one of my all time favorites, don't sleep on it! 5 Stars.