Features Disc of the day
Linda Perhacs
Paralellograms
(Kapp, 1970)
All hail! The siren of mystical mathematical folk-poetry!
In 1970 a dental hygienist working in California was convinced by one of her clients, producer Leonard Rosenman, that she should record some of her songs in his studio. The result was Parallelograms, an album whose depth and beauty is, over three decades on, still utterly staggering. Opener Chimacum Rain sets the tone for what is an ethereal musical journey matched only by Vashti Bunyan and Joni Mitchell, married to the vocal innocence of The Carpenters, while the textures and varying tempos (courtesy of Rosenman's well marshalled team of crack jazzers) frame Perhacs's voice to wondrous effect. The spacey lyrics add to the Perhacs mystique - the album's title track, for instance, being the only song in the history of rock or folk to render mathematical shapes sensual. "Quadrehedral, tetrahedral, mono-cyclo-cyber-cilia!" she swoons and, while on paper it makes for laugh-out-loud reading, on record it appears to make perfect sense.
Perhacs' quirky perception of the inadequacies of a record that in any case failed to sell resulted in a drift away from music into a self-defined spiritual vocation and a return to dentistry. However, the last decade has seen the album reappraised and reissued (the latest version being in 2008 on Sunbeam in definitive edition form), creating a new audience for Perhacs' sui generis version of hippie-folk. Despite her 37-year absence from the studio, rumours are abroad that Perhacs has resumed writing and has been collaborating with Devendra Banhart (for whom she contributed harmonies on 2007's Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon). There have been other signs of life, including a mini documentary, usage of her music in Daft Punk's Electroma, and remixes, all of which are testament to Paralellograms' unique and ongoing power.
Phil Alexander
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 29/01/2010
Further Listening
Vashti Bunyan - Just Another Diamond Day (Phillips, 1970)
Bridget St John - Ask Me No Questions (Dandelion, 1969)
Shelagh McDonald - Let No Man Steal Your Thyme (Sanctuary 2008)
Previous Disc of the day
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Various Artists - Axe Attack Vol II
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2:32 PM GMT 12/03/2010
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The Pop Group - Y
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6:00 AM GMT 11/03/2010
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St Vitus Dance - Glypotheque
Belfast combo return unannounced, go sardonic pop-folk.
6:00 AM GMT 09/03/2010
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