KHAN

It's Heavy, it's Symphonic, it's Quirky, it's Beautiful, it's KHAN!

This relatively unknown supergroup with it's one and only album released in 1972(!!) is probably one of the finest albums ever made by a supergroup in terms of clear genius on the song-writing department with a complete eclecticism in terms of playing a wide array of various styles all in a Prog-fashioned way.

To begin with oddities for the Canterbury fan, Khan opens up the album in a Atomic Rooster kind of way with a blasting organ/guitar riff and daring vocals. However don't let this fool you, the title track also goes through some wonderful symphonic-esque interludes with Dave's classical organ plus a completely spacey passage with Steve's guitar. As a whole, a very engaging introduction with the exception of the vocal duties that can put someone off, fortunately in the rest of the songs the vocal duties are by no means a flaw if not a special feature.

Next song is Stranded which is quite the opposite to the title track, meaning that the heaviness barely shows and as a replacement to that(the heaviness) there's a completely peaceful mood played with lots of delicacy. While of course the instruments are responsbile of this beautiful tranquility, the main feature of this mood actually is Steve Hillage's lovely voice singing with a lot of care and gentleness, totally adore his voice in this tune.

Mixed Up Man of the Mountains, on the other hand, brings back the rock-mood of the opener. But like Khan showed us on the opener, they're not used to staying in one style for too long, so expect a lot of variation in this song too. This time with greater effect, since the vocals are not a flaw and the instrumental passages are extremely memorable wtih Steve being the highlight with his rockin' guitar .

Driving to Amsterdam, while it opens in a rather fast paced manner with intricating organ and guitar, later it completely cools down giving space to Steve to liberate his splendid vocals. However, Steve is not the main feature like he was in Stranded, if not Dave Stewart with his mind-blowing hammond organ that reminds me of Dave Sinclair. This song is the perfect mix of Stranded's beauty and Mixed Up Man of the Mountain's excellent variety and musicianship.

Stargazers is next and it introduces itself in a very quirky way very alike Gentle Giant. However, the rest of the song barely has anything to do with that quirkiness or Gentle Giant. Steve Hillage delivers a magnificent guitar solo in the middle before the quirky intro reprises. The song finalises with a marvellous solo by Dave.

The album concludes, unfortunately, with the only forgettable tune off the album, Hollow Stone. Indeed, it's a ''hollow'' song; it's 8 minutes long and yet there's barely anything that the musicians do other than playing the same thing over and over again, the only exception being when the solos arise. If it were only 4 minutes, I wouldn't consider it repetetive and boring.

As a conclusion to my review, I'll just add that this is something that all fans of the classic 70's Prog should check this out since the music, while placed in the Canterbury sub-genre here, it has a lot to do with the classic 70's Prog music, yet it's totally unique played by one of a kind members thus making an essential masterpiece.

Space Shanty must be one of the most unknown masterpieces of progressive rock music in general! Appeared in 1972 as a low profile effort of the one-shot group KHAN of the burgeoning Canterbury scene, it showcased enormous talents of the two main composers and instrumentalists - Steve Hillage and Dave Stewart. It marks a transition in Hillage's career between his early ARZACHEL/URIEL days and his most successful and popular works with GONG and solo albums to come. And what a transition it was...

The music is a breathtaking fusion of different elements common to the prog era: lenghty instrumental passages, beautiful solo parts of organ and guitar, multi-structured compositions, emotional singing by Hillage, changes of tempo and jazz-rock experimental ambitions. Symphonic prog dramatics meets jazz fusion improvisation meets space rock atmosphere as suggested in the title and the cover image. Tracks flow nicely into one another, without any sense of pretentiousness, mere technicality or empty experimentalism that were quite often then among many prog-inclined bands.

Simply put, Space Shanty does not contain a second of excessive material or dubious fillers - it is a wonderfully composed music piece in its entirety, which you can listen to many many times and always hear something new. In short: a true masterpiece!

PERSONAL RATING: 5/5

P.A. RATING: 5/5

As soon as I laid eye on this cover I knew it: when I see a vinyl version of this I just have to have it! Reading about it on progarchives got me pretty interested. And then - A new limited vinyl print of Khan - Space Shanty at my local record store! And I liked it instantly.

Only the first four sentences of the lyrics are not perfect, the rest of the album is masterfull Canterbury progressive rock with some nice space guitar by the hippi from space; Steve Hillage, who would join Gong after this project. I greatly admire his playing, but the keys of Egg's Dave Stewart are great as well. The grand price is however for drummer Eric Peachy. Every riff is played with different fills, always playing like he is the inventer of the instrument! No silly eighties drumlines here, but the finest of seventies drumplaying!

The concept of this album is backed-up by it's great cover that is one of my favourites of the Canterbury scene, along with Gong's You and Flying Teapot.

All songs are great, with nice melodies and great instrumental passages. Both vocalists don't have a perfect voice, but the managed to sing it in two voices. The result is great! All tracks have their progressive moments and their great touchy vocal parts.

I also like the 'Driving to Amsterdam' song, for I'm a Dutchmen and I like the idea of an English band singing about my small country about it's freedom (softdrug's are legal here) and it's problems (The dyke of worry).

I greatly enjoy this album and it will stay that way. This is essential canterbury and should be listened to by everyone active in this community. Five stars.

Simply My Favorite Canterbury Album

The Canterbury scene was famous for the various mixing and matching that happened between top artists. Keyboard / organist Dave Stewart and Guitarist / Vocalist Steve Hillage were among those rolling stones with major roles in several of the main bands of the genre. In fact, they played together in several different groups, and their comfort with each other was instrumental in several great records. But the peak of their interaction, to my ear, is Khan's Space Shanty. Both musicians had achieved master-level skills but were still developing their artistry. Clearly still excited and hungry, they were far from the rawness of their early work in Arzachel / Uriel. Space Shanty really is a nearly equal balance between the two, where several of their other works are dominated by one or the other.

While the album first comes off as a very good bluesy space jam, closer listening reveals just how intricately composed many of the pieces are. Intertwining lines, call and response, multiple time signatures, all appear in a deceptively complex music. Many of the instrumental passages remind me of the Allman Brothers in tonality, with the organ / lead guitar combo often in unison or complimentary lines. Yet there is so much more going on here. Some sections are classic symphonic prog, some space jam (some of the best ever, I might add), a little blues rock. Despite spanning across the entire prog genre, the sound is remarkably focused and consistent.

Steve Hillage's vocals aren't beautiful, but they are as good as many hard rock singers, and the vocal interactions with bassist Nick Greenwood are sometimes heavenly. His guitar work is simultaneously free and precise, exploratory and skilled. From bluesy psychedelia to crazy space noises, Hillage's sound changed quite a bit over the course of his career. But on Space Shanty all of these elements are present in tasty helpings. Virtually nothing is over the top here. For an artist whose later signature was wild exploration, this is the album where his superb musicianship (which brought Daevid Allen a little nearer to earth in Gong) really gets to shine.

Dave Stewart's effected organ was a staple on many Canterbury records, and his work here is beautiful. Fans of Hatfield and National Health will certainly recognize the tones he uses. But never has he had such a perfect foil. The organ sounds blend so well with the guitar. Stewart's moves from background layering to lead solos are so seamless. His skills are quite strong, but his musicianship is so far ahead of some of the other prog showoffs both historical and current. His ability to compliment a song brings this music from good to phenomenal.

If you like Deep Purple, Allman Brothers, this album is going to appeal to you even if you've never listened to a prog album in your life. If you love Gentle Giant, RPI, or Jazz Fusion, you're going to find plenty to admire here too. I liked this album the first time I heard it, but it just keeps getting better on multiple listens. It combines so many things so well?.

If you can get this album, buy it, you won't regret having this in your collection. While not all will rate it masterpiece as I do, I think any rock fan, prog or not, can enjoy many many listens with this great album.

Have I been waiting to review this incredible testament to very early 70s prog and admitedly one of its crown jewels! It remains one of the highest rated prog albums ever, peculiar only in that this band had only one album and what a recording it was! Khan captures two immense talents at the burgeoning of their erudite careers in Steve Hillage (part of the great "Steve from the UK" bloc along with Hackett and Howe) and the irascible organist Dave Stewart, back in 1972 when the grass was very green and some girls embarked on their path towards becoming future porn-queens. The title track "Space Shanty" has both gents ripping through their instruments in their so very original style, Steve letting his axe fly into the darkest depths of space, echoing manically with Stewart's whimsically fuzzy organ runs. Bassist Mick Greenwood keeps the pot boiling (no pun intended!) and the drums shuffle intensely along for the cosmic ride. This is the nascent birth of space-prog along with Gong and Hawkwind, a testimonial to the future yearning of creative musical geniuses that sprouted everywhere. There is an obvious Canterbury connection in the spirited jazzy excursions (especially when vocals are called to perform) and the breezy organ fills that litter the recording. The gentler, more ambient "Stranded" intervenes with Stewart's rolling organ sweeping masterfully and aided by some sparkling piano, giving Hillage a platform to sing in his usual über-hippy style. The piece includes the humorously sub-titled inclusion "Effervescent Psycho Novelty No.5" (something I wish I wrote!) , a guitar flexout where Stevie lets fly on both stereo channels, always at odds with the crystalline piano sprinklings. Psychedelic music at it's definitely most pristine. The bluesy guitar rant on "Mixed Up Man?" is as intense and fiery as Hillage can be, a cosmic blizzard that starts off nice and soft, suddenly exploding like a supernova when the main lead riff enters the space, in complete agreement with Mick Greenwood taking over the mike. The mid-part scat voice/guitar duet is grand, the organ raging comfortably intricate and sparked by some cool bass runs. The sheer depth and power of the outro/finale is spellbinding! A great track! "Driving to Amsterdam" seems to be a fan favorite (if one judges by a recent PA poll), purely typical Canterbury escapade, a ripping opportunity to create incredible soundscapes where both slippery electric guitar and whomping keys duel intensely. Not even the slightest discredit to Alan Holdsworth or Phil Miller, but Soft Machine and/or National Health with Hillage's scintillating guitar would have been sooooo kick-ass! Here his series of two-channel solos is a true classic, hard , brief and deadly each time. Once again Stewart keeps hard on the fretboard magician's heels, splashing intrinsically glorious passages with shimmering ivory runs. "Stargazers" is a highly hippy affair where love, peace and space vie for attention, all liberally flavored with tongue in cheek humor, the super-cool guitar illuminating the prog fire (Steve was blisteringly fast, incredible fluid and a complete sonic star trekker) with a plethora of dizzying notes. Yes, it's quite dated in terms of sound but the creativity, the bold ambition and the sublime musicianship combine to make this a thoroughly exhilarating audio exercise. The closer "Hollow Stone" includes the "Escape of the Space Pilots" (perhaps inspiring Robert Calvert of Hawkwind fame), bids farewell forever with an outrageous intergalactic voyage that hypnotizes in silken mists, a long organ tirade that is a true classic and explains the universal high esteem Stewart is held on this site and many others, as a consummate (Hall of Fame) keyboardist. The somber guitar riffing weaves through cordons of electro effects, searching, grasping, enraged and outré, a collapsing sea of sounds kills this one off brilliantly. Shape of things to come. Very good things! 5 Mongols

This is my first review (yay) and I figured I might as well start with my favourite album of all time. I'm going to break this down to reviewing each song on it's own, and then giving a final verdict.

1. Space Shanty: The cacophonous opening of the album makes for a very interesting first listen. "Who would begin a album with this?" was my first thought as soon as the intro to Space Shanty started streaming through my headphones, and I prepared myself for the worst in terms of excessively pretentious and hard-to-grasp rock. But it doesn't long before the song calms down and changes into a great break-laden riff which in mere seconds made me realize that I was going to love this album. The song then continues with as many turns and twists as is advisable for a prog-rock song, and none of the twists feel forced or annoying, not even the circus-like Hammond interlude in the middle.

2. Stranded: The album goes from the majestic and sweeping ending of Space Shanty to this song. It is a mellow, yet hopeful song which features some absolutely gorgeous bass-lines and haunting vocals. This is the first song where the lyrics really come forth properly, and wow, are they good or what. Throughout the whole album, the lyrics straddle on the line of pretentious and awesome, but never quite fall too much to any of these sides and thus keep an amazing balance. Of course, this is prog rock, and the whole song can't be calm. Around the middle of the song, the guitar breaks into an absolutely awesome riff which creates some real contrasts with the previous theme of the song. This twist is just as smooth as the others on this album, and I can't understand how they managed to make everything so smooth and... awesome.

3. Mixed Up Man of the Mountains: This song starts out in a dubious way, but quickly removes any doubt from your mind when the first riff gets going. It's a (as usual) shifting song that is very hard to place on any kind of a spectrum. It features some of this albums most psychedelic parts, like the strange vocal performances that follow the complex guitar and Hammond melodies now and then.

4. Driving to Amsterdam: Best song on the album. It starts of with a strange and jumpy riff and then goes on an incredible journey featuring sweeping moments of beauty, fast, happy riffs and some of the best lyrics I have ever heard.

5. Stargazers: Another strange opening riff, which this time stretches a bit further than just a few seconds into the song. Once the song really starts, you can say that it's the most "normal" song on the album. It's a happy-sounding song with lots of breaks here and there, but the breaks are never quite as strange as in the other songs on the album.

6. Hollow Stone: A long and sweeping song with some really beautiful and atmospheric Hammond-playing throughout it's entirety. At many points you can say it's really spiritual-sounding and "swishy", and of course this song is, just like the others, perfectly executed throughout all the twists and turns it takes.

Conclusion: This is a masterpiece. This is probably the only album in which I can't find a single negative word to say. The instruments are perfectly played, the vocals are dynamic, and the feel of the whole album is constantly awe-inspiring. It's a shame they didn't keep at it and released a few more albums. This album is just too good to be so overlooked by "non-prog-fanatics".

One of the best albums from Canterbury, if not the best

Khan is yet another case of a one album band in progressive rock that made an incredible album and then disappeared, what is always disappointment, since good music is never enough.

The main thing that made this album click in me was the strange dialectic with King crimson that this album has: its music is considerably alike the In the Court of the Crimson King album from King Crimson / it has the same mood, but yet it does not sound like King Crimson. I know, i know, but it is pretty hard for me to explain also, so let's just move along. . .

Their music can be described, very shortly, as a blend between hard rock, space rock, psychedelia and jazz. The guitars are the most prominent instrument here, being responsible for most of the solos through the album. The organ is, however, pretty important because it is used as the second voice or secondary soloist instrument. The bass and the drums, although doing an excellent job, only have a background spot here in Space Shanty. One very interesting thing about this albums is that, by having two competent vocalists, the band have a great versatile vocal department.

The songs, despite being quite complex, have the traditional rock structure of theme - chorus - theme used in may different ways, since they have a significant number of different musical themes throughout each song.

Another thing that deserves to be mentioned are the lyrics. Although english is not my first language, it is not hard for me to appreciate the lyrics of Space Shanty, which fit quite well with the band's music in general. The vocals also help the lyrics considerably, since each vocal sings the lyrics that, in my opinion, fit better for it.

Grade and Final Thoughts

Space Shanty is definitely a memorable album for me. It was my first Canterbury album and it one of the best albums I have ever listened in my life. All songs are great, just like the instrumentation and the vocalization. Besides that, Khan managed to avoid a big part of the Canterbury clichés, making this album quite different from the others from this genre.

A great album such as this one deserves a great grade, so 5 stars.

Khan is listed under Canterbury Scene, but this seems to have been more due to geography and the members involved than with the actual music. The sound of Khan is often close to the Psychedelic/Space rock of Nektar, and sometimes it is close to some bands in Symphonic Prog and Heavy Prog. So this is not at all your typical Canterbury album and it is all the better for it (Canterbury is not my favoured sub-genre of Prog). However, there are many jazzy passages that often creep up in Canterbury music, but happily the Jazz influences are never allowed to dominate the music. The result is a very interesting and quite unique piece of music.

The guitars and keyboards are very well played and the vocals are surprisingly strong. Indeed, the vocals are very different from what we would expect from a Canterbury band. And the music rocks harder than any other Canterbury band I have heard. The lyrics are quite "spacy" and bit "trippy" at times but there is thankfully no silly attempt at being humorous.

As far as I am concerned this is the best album Steve Hillage has ever made and also the best of the whole Canterbury sub-genre.

Recommended!

It is a crying shame that Khan only released this album.

The music on this album is full of intricate, but still melodic and jazzy keyboard and spacy guitar driven compositions in the classic Canterbury style. Some of the music is superb. Most notably the opening title track. The rest is also very good.

The best parts of this album is the typical Canterbury parts with intricate jazzy spacy parts. That's when this album become really interesting. There are as I stated some less interesting parts here too. But most of the album is the Canterbury scene at it's best. The album is also a crossover between SuperSister and Hatfield & The North. Maybe this is the first album anyone interested in the Canterbury scene should try.

The musicians (including Steve Hillage and Dave Stewart) later went on to their solo careers and bands like Hatfield & The North, National Health and Gong. All of these bands are good. But Khan and their only album deserves a lot of praise.

4 stars from me to one of the best Canterbury scene albums.

This was a big surprise album for me, looking at the title i was expecting the usual space rock stuff, but insted i got one of the best Symphonic rock albums i have ever heard, this album is almost like Hillage and Stewart wanted to show the prog world they master the melodic symphonic rock thing with ease before they moved on to space rock and more avant gard stuff yust like a painter paint a tradional masterpice before doing some wierd salvador dali stuff. This is a true Canterbury gem, sure it dont realy sound like your typical canterbury band, but who ceares its realy brilliant probobly some of the best songs Hillage has ever writen, if your looking for the avantgard of Egg or the space sillines of Gong dont look here this is pure symphonic rock brilliance that any prog nutt shuld be abel to understand and love. 5 big stars, to bad this amazing group only did 1 album, but what an album!

my 2008 remastered edition of the album allso got 2 nice bonus tracks one previously unrelesed short but very good song Break the chain and the first orginal version of Mixed up man of the Mountains, very good, the sound ofcourse of the whole album is realy superb.