Parallelograms [Expanded]

Rating

Album: Parallelograms [Expanded]
#	Song Title	Time
1)	Chimacum Rain
2)	Paper Mountain Man
3)	Dolphin
4)	Call of the River
5)	Sandy Toes
6)	Parallelograms
7)	Hey, Who Really Cares?
8)	Moons and Cattails
9)	Morning Colors
10)	Porcelain Baked-Over Cast-Iron Wedding
11)	Delicious
12)	If You Were My Man
13)	If You Were My Man - (alternate take)
14)	Hey, Who Really Cares? - (take With Intro)
15)	Chimacum Rain
16)	Spoken Intro to Leonard Rosenman
17)	Chimacum Rain
18)	BBC Interview
19)	I Would Rather Love - (previously unreleased)

Performer Notes

Personnel: Linda Perhacs (vocals, guitar, programming); Steve Cohn (6- & 12-string electric guitars); Reinie Press (guitar, bass); John Neufeld (flute, saxophone); Tommy Brown (harmonica); Leonard Rosenman (programming); Brian Ingoldsby (sound effects).
Includes liner notes by Michael Piper.
Personnel: Linda Perhacs (vocals, guitar, guitars, electronics); Steve Cohn (guitar, electric guitar, 6-string guitar, 12-string guitar); Reinie Press (guitar, electric bass); Fleetfoot (guitar); John Neufeld (flute, saxophone); Milt Holland, Shelly Manne (percussion); Leonard Rosenman (electronics); Brian Ingoldsby (sound effects, hosepipe).
Liner Note Author: Linda Perhacs.
Photographer: Bob Flick.
Arrangers: Leonard Rosenman; Linda Perhacs; Steve Cohn.
Linda Perhacs' cult favorite Parallelograms instantly evokes the spare and isolated feel of the songs and the production on Joni Mitchell's first albums, particularly her debut (largely solo acoustic) -- not to mention the melodies, guitar playing, and singing. It's not a photocopy, however; it's hard to imagine Mitchell singing "I'm spacing out, I'm seeing silences between leaves," as Perhacs does on "Chimacum Rain," unless Mitchell got spiked with acid right before getting on-stage. In addition, Perhacs is adept at dropping unusual effects and arrangements into the mix, that on occasion have a mildly disquieting and psychedelic vibe. Back to "Chimacum Rain," for example: double-tracked voices get into a slightly hypnotic, disorienting swirl, and suddenly move into a half-chanted section with doomy background notes from hard-to-identify instruments. "Parallelograms" is a round-like vocal (again with multi-track voices), consisting of exactly eight words, that without warning goes into creepy washes of electronically distorted voices, flutes, and rattles. Not all of the record is unusual, though; much of it's just attractively wistful, moody singer/songwriter folk, sometimes with an engaging folk-jazz backup, sometimes just with a guitar, sometimes enlivened by creative smudges of organ and electric guitar. ~ Richie Unterberger

Professional Reviews

Uncut (11/03, p.130) - 5 stars out of 5 - "The latest folk-psych gem to be salvaged from obscurity, Linda Perhacs' only album, from 1970, occupies a beguiling middle-ground between Joni Mitchell and Tim Buckley..."

Dirty Linen (pp.60-61) - "[T]he album, now considered legendary among folk recordings, is the American equivalent of Vashti Bunyan's debut album, released the same year in the United Kingdom..."

Mojo (Publisher) (p.74) - "It is deeply spooky....Voices sneak in and give you a shiver like a cold breeze gusting into an incense-filled room."

Mojo (Publisher) (3/01/04, p.53) - Included in Mojo's The 67 Lost Albums You Must Own! - "A psych-folk masterpiece."