Well, in lieu of Tore's taking off, I think we'll keep the PAFAC an open-source sort of thing where people can both suggest albums and create polls for those suggestions that generate the most interest.
For this coming week, I've got two suggestions for possible discussion-
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Soft Machine - Fourth (1971)
One of the original Canterbury bands and quite influential in the realm of jazz music in general, the Softs were a prodigious outfit that changed members quite often throughout the 70's, but were most well known in the earliest part of the decade for the talents of bassist Hugh Hopper, organist Mike Ratledge and drummer Robert Wyatt (who occasionally sang, but not often). Fourth was the last of the Softs' albums where this lineup was still intact, as well as being the final album featuring Wyatt. Not going to mince words, but there's a hell of a lot to like here, and it's as great a place as any to start for those who A. Don't know much about these guys or B. If you have even the most rudimentary interest in top class proggy jazz. Recommended!
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Ambrosia - Ambrosia (1975)
What do you get when a bunch of Californian wannabe Beach Boys see King Crimson at a concert back in '72 and decide to follow suit? Before all that blue-eyed soul scthuffz like You're The Biggest Part Of Me, there was this little crossover gem: poppier and yet more muscular in places than most of America's often derivative and unspired prog-related music at the time, this self-titled debut has everything a proghead might want in a record: wicked instrumental chops coupled with vivid lyrical imagery, awesome songwriting and some muy excelente vocal harmonizing courtesy of frontman David Pack and the rest of the band. Besides all this, the proceedings are splendid on the production side of things as well: Alan Parsons, fresh off Pink Floyd's DSOTM, was behind the reins of this particular carriage, and the results are irrefutably grand.
Searching for an American prog. album that can rival the U.K.'s best? Have at ye!
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