“Hammer”
by Sky Sunlight Saxon
2005 song
Slow and with a pleasantly stoned atmosphere, "Hammer" is one of the more majestic songs on Sky Sunlight Saxon’s 2005 collaboration with Sterling Roswell, Transparency. Roswell’s sedate arpeggiated guitar supports a rambling Sky who free-associates his way through distracted solemnities that appear to be based on "Build Yourself An Aero Plane", a song he recorded with Yesterday’s Thoughts the year before. As on "Alakazam", an uncredited female voice is heard on "Hammer". She adds long, arcing notes high above Sky.
"Hammer", despite its improvised nature, is in fact credited to the entire Lighter band plus Sky. There are several dramatic sections in which fast chords come in hard, with matching drumbeats, elevating "Hammer" to a three-minute mini-epic. But it’s an epic whose narrative is as dense and fragmented as Sky Saxon’s grave and inscrutable visions.
