Released: 05/04/24
It’s hard to comprehend that Linda Perhacs’ god-tier Parallelograms from 1970 may not have made it to contemporary ears at all, were it not for the righteous crate diggers who waxed lyrical about the record whenever they discovered it, thus rescuing it from the dustbin of forgotten classics. Indeed, so discouraged was Perhacs by the lack of commercial attention, and the label's reluctance to promote her debut album, that the Californian artist returned to her career as a dental hygienist (it would be another 44 years before Perhacs released another record, 2014’s The Soul of All Natural Things).
I can still remember how I first came to hear Parallelograms’ witchy as all Hecuba avant-psych-folk title track: Fourtet’s 2004 compilation for the Late Nate Tales series, which is yet more proof of Kieran Hebden’s unimpeachable taste. Coming across more as a seer than a mere (albeit extremely talented) singer-songwriter, there is a tangible sense on Parallelograms that it is not of this world; that Perhacs has had revealed to her some deep primordial arcana, and more than two decades on, ‘Parallelograms’ and many more of the LP’s tracks, such as the wistful, serpentine ‘Hey, Who Really Cares?’ and the gorgeous, enigmatic opener ‘Chimacum Rain’, still give me goosebumps.