Oldish Psych and Prog

From ProgressiveRock :
PFM's international fortunes had greatly improved, thanked in part to major touring in both UK and the USA, the later documented on the excellent live album Cook while on support for Peter Frampton. Chocolate Kings was then the first of two albums the group would record in English for the US record company Asylum. To celebrate, the band recruited the vocal talents of Bernardo Lanzetti, previously in Italian progsters Acqua Fragile. Educated in Texas, Lanzetti had a distinctive lead vocal, somewhere between Roger Chapman and Peter Gabriel. That wasn't the only change, gone was Sinfield. Marva Jan Morrow contributed English lyrics, while Claudio Fabi sat alone in the producer's chair. From the opening bars of "From Under", Chocolate Kings presents a harder, more dynamic PFM, anchored in the roar of Premoli's Hammond and the breakneck rhythms of DiCioccio and Djivas. The elegant opening guitar lines of "Harlequin" and "Out Of The Roundabout" offer some escape to the manic, almost claustrophobic meters that they eventually erupt into. "Chocolate Kings" continues the pace, in jig-like fashion. The longer tracks on the second side drive hard in the same fashion. No doubt, there's little subtlety with Chocolate Kings. The album was a critical as well as commercial success, especially in Japan where the band embarked on their first tour, and in England, where the band were even visited by the Queen Mother before a Royal Hall performance! However, the group claims that the album was "boycotted" in the US market as a result of their performances at benefits to support the PLO. Oddly, their next album would be recorded in Los Angeles, without Mauro Pagani, who would leave the band