SPACE SHANTY

"Space Shanty" is the debut full-length studio album by UK progressive rock act Khan. The album was released through Deram Records in June 1972. Khan was a relatively short-lived band, and their only output was this debut album. Featuring some pretty prolific Canterbury scene musicians (among others Steve Hillage and Dave Stewart), "Space Shanty" is a sort of supergroup.

Stylistically Khan play an interesting mix of hard rock, progressive rock, spiced-up with Canterbury jazz-rock/fusion influenced moments. It´s both an intriguing, clever, and pleasant sound that Khan produce, although the occasional hard rocking riffs and heavy drumming can at times point in another harder edged direction. When the album is most heavy I hear traces of early Judas Priest and Uriah Heep in there, but that´s just an element of Khan´s sound and as described above there are many other elements which make up the full sound of the album.

Stewart´s pleasant and often jazzy organ playing and the tight and organic drumming and bass playing add a lot to the sound too, and of course the vocals by Hillage, which are quite powerful and well performed (at times sounding a lot like Rob "The Metal God" Halford, sans the high pitched screaming). So the musicianship is definitely one of the greatest assets of "Space Shanty".

Another great asset is the warm, organic, and detailed sound production, and the intriguing songwriting should also be mentioned. It´s obvious these guys are both skilled musicians and clever songwriters, and although the music features elements from various known genres and music styles Khan manage to produce a pretty unique sounding progressive rock album. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.