Coldrumhead got it exactly -- all Floyd's records sold really well in the US, but only after DSOTM went to #1 in 1973 and then stayed in the top 200 until almost 1990!!
By then Ummagumma was 4 years old and avant-garde weird noise wasn't such a farout concept (let's not forget Lennon's tireless promotion of Yoko Ono, who's records certainly have "avant garde" moments as well as "screeching".)
From a US perspective, by the time very many people were listening to "weird early Floyd" Zappa, Yoko and "Revolution #9" had already been there, done that.
(So were those '68 to '71 Floyd records actually going over big in Europe when they were released?)
Barrett was pretty much a nobody over here too, at least until he emerged in the 70's as a "long lost" legendary cult character (I'm not sure his solo albums were released here til 1974 -- the mythologizing on "Wish You Were Here" in 1975 certainly helped a lot too.)
If you've ever seen their appalling appearance on American Bandstand (or one of those shows) around 1967 . . . Syd doesn't even bother to move his mouth and "lip sync", he just stares off into space -- so the camera mostly focuses on Nick Mason plinging a cymbal -- no wonder they were never invited back! (And no wonder the other guys kicked him out.)
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