Linda Perhacs is a California based singer/songwriter whose first 1970 obscure record now regarded as a psych-folk masterpiece has become a huge collector’s item and is responsible for influencing many artists of the modern generation including Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom etc.

A private songwriter who worked as a dental hygienist was discovered by a record industry executive who was her patient. After hearing her songs, he signed her with Kapp records and with session musicians recorded her sole record, Parallelograms in 1970.

Outside of their knowledge, they found that the recording studio had mixed the music to make it more listenable on AM radio and a disappointed Linda would stop recording while she continued to write songs.

Twenty years later, in the mid-90s, her music was re-discovered and reissued by some psych-folk enthusiasts and she was eventually located still living in the Topanga Canyon area after which an official reissue was pursued, this time with the proper mixing from the original source tapes.

This now cult album evokes the sparing style of Joni Mitchell especially with the music, guitar and lyrics. Her musical sense shows her skills dropping unusual effects and arrangements into the mix, that on occasion have a mildly disquieting and psychedelic vibe for example the title track, Parallelograms, in which one hears electronically distorted voices, flutes, and rattles and has eight words. The song begins with overlapping guitar and vocal parts before abruptly entering a moody, trippy middle passage of distorted sounds and then ultimately returning to its main theme. Other notable tracks are a trippy Chimacum Rain, Sandy Goes, Call of the Wild with its mood swings between apprehensive and rapturous.

This album itself is an excellent psychedelic take on folk music. A lot of artists and groups in the 60s and 70s were experimenting with drugs that translated into their music, but there are certain differences in how this manifested in her music with her vocal and lyrical expression of her songs. She writes, “Drugs played no role in my creativity,”.

Overall, ‘Parallelograms’ has plenty of infectious cuts that will grow on the listener and is an outstanding example of psychedelic folk that is highly recommended by the author to those who enjoy the genre.

Linda Perhacs, Parallelograms (1970, Kapp)

Track list

A1 Chimacum Rain 3:25

A2 Paper Mountain Man 3:10

A3 Dolphin 2:53

A4 Call Of The River 3:46

A5 Sandy Toes 2:52

A6 Parallelograms 4:32

B1 Hey, Who Really Cares? 2:35

B2 Moons And Cattails 4:03

B3 Morning Colors 4:34

B4 Porcelain Baked Cast Iron Wedding 4:02

B5 Delicious 4:08

Rating: *****

Reviewed by Juzer Kopti

Juzer Kopti, originally from Bombay and now based in the suburbs of Washington DC, is a music enthusiast who enjoys crate digging for rare records, his taste in music tends towards 60s-70s psychedelia, folk, rock, jazz, fusion and progressive and also enjoys collecting fountain pens, vintage cameras and mechanical watches.