The fun thing about diving into a genre is finding those weird pockets of sounds. One off albums, weird band connections to other, larger bands. Sub-genres based on location. Maybe that’s a part of the reason I ‘m so drawn to both metal and progressive rock: they share the same dark and dusty corners of obscurity that often hide hidden gems. I’m not sure how much Space Shanty, the debut and sole output from the UK’s Khan fits here, but I know I was immediately hooked as soon as I heard it. Spawned from the Canterbury scene and featuring who’s who of folks that would go on to innovate and invigorate the scene, it’s a curious fish that rocks harder than a lot of its peers’ work, and worth it for the electrifying guitar work.

The album cover clearly gives away the stars of the show here: Steve Hillage on lead guitar, who would go onto join the likes of Gong during their run of albums that constitute the “Radio Gnome” trilogy and Dave Stewart on organ and keyboards, who would go on with Egg (whose great album The Civil Surface – featuring Hillage on guitar – I reviewed here) as well as Hatfield and the North and National Health. And despite strong performances from both Nick Greenwood on bass and Eric Peachey on drums, this is clearly the Hillage and Stewart show. The opening title track at first seems to adhere to the almost pastoral, psychedelic daisy prog the Canterbury scene was known for, with trippy lyrics about needing to be free and lines like “Starstruck moon men looks so blind / you’re still a slave within your mind”. But that dense riff could come straight from Sabbath or Purple. Greenwood’s bass takes up a nice portion of the space in the middle of the soundstage, with Stewart panned left and Hillage right, often shifting between doubling the melody or playing counterpoint to each other.

The big thing that draws me into both “Space Shanty” the track and Space Shanty as a whole is Hillage’s guitar work. He is a beast here, using the space and extended song lengths typical of the genre to really let off some pure fire in his solos. It’s why, as nice as a track like “Stranded” is, it feels much more in keeping with the scene at the time. Sure, it’s a scene I adore (and let this serve as a reminder I need to review my Caravan albums), but when I hear the thunder and lightning Hillage’s guitar is bringing out, it makes me want an entire album of that. That doesn’t take away from how good Dave Stewart is, or what he brings to the entire album. Getting back to “Stranded” for a moment, he absolutely owns middle of the song, and like wise his contributions to both “Mixed Up Man Of The Mountains” and the rocking “Driving to Amsterdam” wouldn’t have the same power without him. The latter in particular has some early Jethro Tull vibes that I love, but balances that with Stewart’s superb keyboards leads – something that Tull didn’t do much of, preferring to lead with Anderson’s flute or his and Martin Barre’s guitars.

But ultimately Space Shanty is so much Steve Hillage’s show I’m flabbergasted I haven’t checked out his Fish Rising album, which was supposedly made up of tracks originally intended for Khan’s follow-up album had they not imploded. Oh well, this album is great and I’ll use this as a reminder to check out more Hillage shortly.

NOTE: I started this review a week or so ago but got sidetracked, so apologies for the rough draft feel of it – just wanted to get it out and move on to the next one!