Issue 2025-071

Khan — On Silent Space

Andy Read

After the band's formation, it wasn't long before they made their first musical statement with this energetic five-song EP. On Silent Space is in-essence a heavy alt-rock journey, tinged with a generous dose of psychedelic nuances that offers a glimpse of things to come.

Opener, The While is a pretty direct guitar-based chunk of alt-rock with a raw kind of a swagger. Atlas is the better indicator of things to come. The vocalist has that lazy, semi-disinterested Chris Cornell delivery that brings a Soundgarden familiarity. However, the guitars are more alt-rock than stoner, while numerous passages show a clear psyche influence.

That is taken a step further with Falls World which exudes 60s psyche-rock. There is some terrific, intricate interplay between all three players, and the riffs are surprisingly complex.

The slower, hazy pace of Thief doesn't really work. It sounds incomplete. But it is thankfully short, so we move onto the closing title track without any harm being done. This track also has a distinct Soundgarden vibe but again the psyche influences often break through. It's the longest song here and gives a foretaste of what this band can achieve when it allows itself the time to stretch-out the instrumental sections. My favourite song here.

So this was a pretty good first step. It's pretty raw and direct but the band's influences are clear and it displays the trio's ability to jam some interesting heavy-psyche guitar lines.

Khan — Vale

Andy Read

Khan's debut full album, Vale followed in 2018 along with a national tour supporting progressive rock titans Like Thieves.

In contrast to On Silent Space, Vale is a far grander and more expansive project. It permitted Josh Bills (vocals/guitar/keys), Mitchell Kerr (bass) and Beau Heffernan (drums) to explore many of the outer reaches of 70s heavy psychedelia and progressive rock.

This album has been a slow-grower for me. The riff-lines, vocal melodies and misty noise took a while to sink in. But now, they won't let go.

Built on a lovely, flowing acoustic guitar motif the highlight for me is Slowman. But there is not a weak moment on this album. Shape-shifting between energetic and slow, electric and acoustic, and heavy and mellow, it has more than enough musical variation to become an album that listeners will return to repeatedly over many years.

Those who were around at the time, will be able to select a whole bunch of 70s psyche bands that form the basis for this album. Vale is a mesmerising, fuzzed-up and tripped-out heavy-psych journey. There is darkness. There is light. There is gloom. There is beauty. The bass-lines are vibrant, the guitars soar and weave around the tormented grooves, and the drumming does exactly what it needs to do, exactly when it needs to do it. Josh Bills varies his vocals according to the song/message. Everything fits.

This was an album that broke the band out from the underground. It reverberated with fans of the genre across the world and generated notable sales, especially through Bandcamp. The ripples were felt by festival organisers, who invited Khan to perform at the 2019 Progfest event in Melbourne.

Bored during the lock-downs that followed, and inspired by their love of video games, the band put-together an 8-bit version of Vale, which was released as a floppy disk bundle with a USB to floppy disk drive. If that doesn't sound like your thing, then just be careful if ordering on Bandcamp, so that you get the version that you desire.

Khan — Monsoons

Andy Read

In what promised to be a particularly big year for Khan, 2020 began with performances supporting Yawning Man (US) and Beastwars (NZ) plus the announcement of Khan's first international tour in Europe.

Then the pandemic arrived.

With all hopes of the tour going ahead being crushed, Khan instead entered the studio to compile their unplanned second album Monsoons.

It is definitely an outlier in the band's discography, being an instrumental jump into jam-based post-rock. Yep, no vocals and only a cursory nod to the band's usual psyche influences.

It is all well composed and played but this really is not my style of auditory pleasure. And as the psyche sounds and the vocals are the two things I really like about Khan's albums, then this is a step too far for me. Those who enjoy instrumental post-rock will probably love it.

The ongoing restrictions also resulted in an opportunity to headline the 2021 virtual edition of Indian festival Strawberry Fields XXIV, based in Bangalore. The video (below) of their live performance for this event includes several tracks from Monsoon.

Khan — Creatures

Andy Read

As soon as the world began to open up again in 2022, Khan quickly launched into their much-anticipated 22-date tour of Australia and Europe.

It was at this point, and the release of their third album Creatures, that I first came across Khan. I grabbed a copy of this album and recommended that others do the same, with an article on our new releases blog. Although I quickly worked my way through the trio's back catalogue, it is Creatures that remains my favourite Khan album.

Thankfully after Monsoon, both the vocals and the psyche sounds are back and forefront. The six songs are a masterful blend of psych, blues, desert, stoner and doom. There is something for anyone who enjoy heavy music in this dynamic album. Fans of King Buffalo and Elder will be especially pleased.

Favourites? So many bits of this album are just perfect. The desert-rock guitar opening of Slow captures one's attention from the very first notes. The stoner style of the vocals works a gem. The builds to the song's climaxes are perfectly staged.

How Old is similar, built on top of a delightful guitar run. Follow is a sludgey slab of fuzzy, doomy psyche. The calm ending catches me every time. Very clever. It fully warrants its ten-minute extended run-time.

Eyes, Lungs, Arms & Mind takes a more movie-scape approach. I always think of a down-at-heel western in the slightly creepy opening. From there it's a wonderful ride across the deserts of stoner, post-rock and heavy-psyche landscapes. Brilliant.

The throbbing bass leads on the hauntingly-calm Confusion, before the final third explodes with a near extreme-metal intensity. There is plenty of variety within Khan's musical framework. The title-track highlights that point, by remaining calm throughout.

Creatures is an album that any fan of these interwoven genres must own. It has a great cover too.

Later in 2023 the band hit the road for a 21–date tour of Australia, Europe and the UK to promote Creatures with performances at Desertfest Antwerp, Fuzz Festival in Stockholm, and concluding the tour by opening for Colour Haze in Hamburg.

An Australian tour ended with a sold-out hometown show. This sadly marked the first line-up change in the band's history, being bassist Mitchell Kerr's final show with the band.

Khan — That Fair and Warlike Form / Return to Dust

Andy Read

Which brings us nicely up to the current time, and the release of Khan's fourth and most ambitious album so far.

As the title and track-listing ably demonstrate, this is a classic progressive presentation of two extended songs; one for each side of a vinyl album.

Both clock-in around the 23-minute mark and both offer a similar meld of hazy psych and heavy stoner riffs, with a longing for progressive rhythms and almost dirge-like, post-rock crescendos.

Simple yet complex, there is just so much to discover here. I am still finding new gems in each song on every listen.

I think Side A just about edges it, in terms of being the one I would spin if time was limited. There are bits here that remind me of Green Carnation's Light of Day... opus. Never a bad comparison.

The lyrics evoke a sense of despondency and melancholy, with the vocals offering everything from ethereal falsetto to self-obsessed wailing. The guitar and rhythm team fit perfectly throughout. Another fabulous album cover too.

A contender for my Top 10 records of the year list. I can not think that any fan of the heavy-psyche genre will not love this album.