Kapp Records · 1970
An untrained dental hygienist's only record of the era: psych-folk so strange the label ruined the pressing and she gave up music for forty-four years.
Linda Perhacs was a dental hygienist in Beverly Hills who made one of the strangest folk records of its decade, then went back to cleaning teeth for forty-four years. *Parallelograms* is that record: eleven songs of psychedelic folk built by someone with no studio training and no commercial ambition, which is exactly why nothing on it sounds like anyone else.
The way in was a patient. Leonard Rosenman — an Oscar-winning film composer (*East of Eden*, later *Barry Lyndon* and *Bound for Glory*) — heard one of her demos, and between 1969 and 1970 brought her into a studio to produce it. Kapp Records wanted a Simon & Garfunkel; what they got was an album threaded with tape manipulation, varispeed vocals and passages of abstract sound collage. They had no idea what to do with it. The original Kapp master tapes are now lost; everything since has come from the duplicate tapes Perhacs kept at home.
What survives is music of unusual fragility. *Chimacum Rain* opens with minor-key vocal harmonies stacked until one woman becomes a choir, sung with so much breath and sibilance that it feels unguarded. *Dolphin* is barely more than a guitar and an exhale. *Moons and Cattails* drifts on an open tuning and a melody that never resolves where you expect. And then the title track, where Perhacs tried to **turn geometric shapes into sound** — fracturing her voice, bending its speed, opening a central passage of pure abstraction. It carries one of the finest credits on any record of the era: Brian Ingoldsby, listed for an "amplified shower hose" used as a wind instrument. Heard now, *Parallelograms* sits like a missing link between Laurel Canyon and the four decades of freak-folk that followed it — Devendra Banhart, Julia Holter, the whole New Weird America.
For collectors the original is both grail and trap. The 1970 Kapp pressing (KS 3636, red stripes label) is genuinely rare — it sold close to nothing, so few were pressed — and clean copies command serious money. But it is the very version Perhacs disowned: mixed thin for AM radio, on noisy vinyl, the Terre Haute copies worst of all. "When I heard my first vinyl, I threw it in the trash," she has said. Treat the original as a trophy, not a listening copy. For sound, the 2010 Sundazed/Mexican Summer reissue, cut by Kevin Gray, is **the best master in circulation** — when you find a quiet copy it finally breathes, though the vinyl quality is inconsistent. If you don't want the hunt, Elemental Music's 2024 180g is in print, quiet and clean, with the original artwork and Kapp labels reproduced. Avoid the streaming masters: stripping out the tape hiss stripped out the air around the voice, which is half the point.
The album was rediscovered the way these things usually are — a crate-digger. Michael Piper of The Wild Places reissued it from vinyl in 1998, then tracked Perhacs down in 2000, and the proper tape-sourced reissues followed. She made her second album, *The Soul of All Natural Things*, in 2014. *Parallelograms* is the rare record that had to be thrown away before anyone could save it.
Psych-folk of rare fragility, sabotaged at birth by an AM-radio pressing. The Kapp original is a noisy trophy: to actually hear it, find Kevin Gray's Sundazed cut (2010) or Elemental's 2024 180g.
Parallelograms on Vinyl — Which Pressing?
KS 3636, red stripes label, single sleeve with blue insert. Rare, but the copy Perhacs disowned — thin AM-radio mix, noisy vinyl (Terre Haute copies worst). A trophy, not a listening copy. €250–600+ by condition
Kevin Gray cut, the best master around. A quiet copy lets the record breathe, but vinyl quality is inconsistent. €30–60 used
in print, quiet and clean, brighter EQ, original artwork and Kapp labels reproduced. The no-hunt choice. €25–35
the digital streaming masters, de-essed and airless; and the original as a listening copy
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Why does the original Kapp pressing of Parallelograms sound bad?
Kapp mixed and pressed it for AM radio, stripping the highs and lows for a thin, 'telephone' sound, often on noisy vinyl — the red-label Terre Haute copies are the worst offenders. Perhacs disliked it so much she said she threw her first copy in the trash. That's why the original, rare and coveted as it is, works better as a collector's object than a listening copy.
Which reissue of Parallelograms should I buy?
For sound, the 2010 Sundazed/Mexican Summer cut by Kevin Gray is the most convincing master around — the catch is inconsistent vinyl quality, so a quiet copy matters. If you'd rather not chase vintage pressings, Elemental Music's 2024 180g is in print, clean, with the original artwork reproduced. The original Kapp master tapes are lost; every reissue comes from the duplicate tapes Perhacs kept.
Is Parallelograms Linda Perhacs's only album?
For forty-four years it was. After the 1970 flop she went back to dental hygiene and recorded nothing more, until collector Michael Piper of The Wild Places tracked her down in 2000 and the official reissues began. She finally released a second album, The Soul of All Natural Things, in 2014.
