Desert (Steve Linnegar's Snakeshed, 1982)

These musicians come from South Africa and this is maybe their proggest track, a 14 minutes song deeply influenced (IMHO) by Animals-era Pink Floyd and some pastoral British bands. Guitarist duo Steve Linnegar and Martin Kopelowitz  founded this band in Cape Town and recorded theirt first album between South Africa and London. I do think this is a fascinating and enjoyable composition, featuring atmospheric passages and beautiful tempo changes, even if I read many ungenerous reviews about this track and "Classic Epics" album, labelled as a derivative and "less than average prog pop" release.

The cover reveals Linnegar & Kopelowitz's passion for martial arts.

Likely because of my musical ignorance, I confess that I enjoyed "Desert" very much, and I still listen to it from time to time. What I especially like here is the open minded approach of the band, melting so many different styles in one coherent song, with a liquid and warm texture where prog meets soul. I'd like to know my progfriends' opinion about this old piece of music.

African Day (Hawk, 1971)

This long epic is a treat for my ears. Coming from South Africa, it's the most important track by Hawk, one of the many bands that didn't reach a well deserved international recognition becouse of the long period of isolation their Country went through. "African Day" is the title track and the opening song of the band's debut work and is the musical depiction of a day in the Black Continent,drawing a series of vivid scenes.

After this debut album, Hawk released a second work then disbanded.

It's a fine example of what some reviewers used to call afro-rock, or more simply folk-prog. How many good harmonies, what a beautiful flute... not to mention the ethnic rythms! This epic transforms the sun, the trees, the animals, the human beings in musical sketches, changing tempos and pleasant melodies. And what's even more surprising, the band melted a great deal of different genres and moods to create a coherent and convincing suite. Too bad they didn't have a longer career!

The Homecoming (Freedom's Children, 1970)

A strange, arcane, acid, trip into another dimension, this is "The Homecoming", taken from Astra, the most popular album by Freedom's Children. Based on Hammond and guitars,  this is the perfect son of the early heavy prog era. Unfortunately, the band is one of the most underrated ones, maybe because of their apartheid South-African era. But this track easily proves how innovative they were and how much they exploited the contemporary acid rock scene, with that smell of proto-prog I always like.

"Astra" was the second studio album by Freedom's Children. 

One could hardly decide the genre of their music, ranging from an experimental heavy prog to a dark space, featuring many tempo changes and a fluid, rich musical texture. The main riff is enthralling and the distorted vocals sound very effective. I also like the down tempo interlude à la VDGG and the creative use of the acoustic guitar lost in the background. An uncommon piece of music, IMHO, and a great discovery for those liking the hidden prog pearls.

I Can't Look Away (Trevor Rabin, 1989)

Mostly famous for being a member of Yes between 1981 and 1995, Trevor Rabin has a long and brilliant career both as a solo artist and as a producer, and he also wrote many successful original soundtracks major films, like "Armageddon" or "American Outlaws". But he's responsible for many good prog rock songs too, such as this "I Can't Look Away", taken from the album "Can't Look Away".

This was Trevor Rabin's fourth studio album.

As you can easily imagine, it's a guitar driven, mostly instrumental epic, well balancing majestic solos and delicate interludes. Rabin managed to merge some '80s electronic devices and a classic prog rock texture, not so far from Hackett's and Howe's solo projects from the same era. But the thing I especially like here (and also elsewhere in Rabin's albums) is the emotional side of the track, full of passion and intimate sadness. Trevor's technical skills do the rest, of course.