“Alakazam”
by Sky Sunlight Saxon
2005 song
Another masterful marriage of sinewy garage guitar and pop-psych keyboards, "Alakazam" is a particularly playful Sky Saxon song on Transparency from 2005. It’s more of a soundscape than a song, since Sky Saxon merely intones a few stoned phrases, including "Alakazam", over the first few seconds of the song before falling silent. The rest is taken up by an unknown female voice singing fey, melodic “la la la”s.
Without many Sky vocals to work with, a compromise was reached: producers Neil Brockbank and Sterling Roswell (who plays the great crunchy guitar riff) added heaps of echo to Sky’s mumblings, mining them for mood rather than lyrics. It was an inspired idea; "Alakazam" is a one-chord jam from Venus, neither here nor there. Like Sky himself that day in the studio.
“Alakazam” vs. “Alkazam”
The back of the CD/DVD case of Transparency spells the title as "Alkazam", while the booklet and the promo CD version spell it "Alakazam". Sky seems to in fact say the more rhythmically pleasing "Alakazam" so that’s what we assume the song’s real name is.
