Khan- Space Shanty (1972, & reissued 2005)

Lately I've been trying to find new music to have different things to listen to, I'm a music junkie, so I had been browsing different bands and reviews on a progressive rock website.  Although prog rock has some lame stigmas to it genre, prog is pretty all encompassing. (kraut rock, early psych, prog, RIO, etc.)  Well, after finding quite a few of the albums that sounded cool and listening to them,  I have completely stopped reading anything from that site; some of those bands are freakin' awful.  Khan, being from the early Canterbury Scene, is pretty much one of those bands.  I wouldn't say that they are awful, but boring is probably a way better description. 

The first 20 seconds or so made me think that Space Shanty was going to be a pretty cool early psych/prog release; I was wrong.  This album has 8 tracks, and for the most part nothing to get excited about.  Granted they do hit early 70's prog rock spot on, the album, and songs, as a whole are is very disappointing.  Each track starts off pretty much the same with prog style guitar that builds until the drums kick in, then vocals, this continue until a breakdown, then you hear a solo, then back into the song; this formula is on every track.  I will admit that some of the instrumentation and breakdowns are cool, but there are way, I mean way, better examples of early prog/psych guitars/instrumentation/vocals/etc.  I was listening to this album, in order to review it, while driving home from work and was so bored that I got tired, literally.  I have been trying to think of something to compare this to so here it is: if you took C.C.R. mixed them with lo-fi guitars and then added Pink Floyd meets Boston vocals, then you'd have Khan.  This is more or less a band that you would hear on your local classic rock station that would stick in your head until you got mad that it was so intrusive. 

If you are reading this, you can tell that I didn't like it.  Maybe Khan has other albums, maybe some of there members went on to do really cool music?, I don't know and have no intention of trying to find out.  Maybe sometime down the line I will accidentally stumble across some project that had Khan members and will be impressed, and if so, I will post something about it.

Official score- 1/5

Foreningen Til Livets Beskyttelse- Self Titled (1972)

I found this album years ago, while surfing the internet for something new to hear.  I have never seen this album anywhere to buy, but have found it online, for a ton of cash, so download it if you think you are interested.  There isn't very much information to be found online for Foreningen Til Livets Beskyttelse, but this album isn't too bad and definitely worth a listen.


From what I can gather, Foreningen Til Livets Beskyttelse was comprised of different musicians that were in some sort of hippie-folk playing commune, in Holland around the early 70's; and their name means "The Organization for Protection of Life", how hippie is that?  This self titled album is a really good example of progressive folk, mixed with early Danish psychedelic.  The album is comprised of the usual instruments: guitars, bass, drums, woodwinds, etc., but the one thing that does stand out is the rhythms and structures of their songs.  Most folk type albums that I have heard are your standard peace loving acoustic guitar with melodic vocals-not that exciting, and I'm not saying that this will rock your world, but they way they structure their songs with all the different instruments and beats produced by the drumming or rhythmical instrumentation lends to some unique tunage.  With 9 tracks that cover a pretty broad spectrum, folk wise, this is something that can be a great addition to any music fans collection.

Now, with all that being said, it is folk, which in my opinion is not a genre that I am going to get too excited about; and with vocals being in Dutch, this is an album that is for that "certain niche".  I like this album, and in fact I am sure that I played this when I was doing a local radio show with Gene Cesspool.  I recommend this, but if you don't like being unable to understand the language of the vocals, don't like folk music and not a fan of early prog., then this will not be for you.

Official score- 3.5/5