If you’re going to do something, do it all the way. If you are going to make music, and you want to make that music your own, then do it. Sometimes you have to build your own instruments in order to make the music that you need to make; the sounds available to you with the traditional arsenal may not speak to you, or may not be able to speak properly for you.
 

SKY NEEDLE are a band of humans living in Brisbane, Melbourne and Kyogle, Australia. They were founded in 2009 at the foot of the Brisbane ‘sky needle’, a strange architectural extravagance left inexplicably derelict since its construction for world expo 88. In honour of this giant phallic absurdity, Sky Needle vowed to only perform using their own home-made instruments.

 
The idea of using custom instruments reminds me of Buke and Gase, but listening proves to take every shred of that comparison away. Sky Needle are more percussive, more experimental, more jumping off buildings without a net. Basically, Sky Needle is most at home in unfamiliar territory.
 

 
A track like “Stars Rain Outside” recalls bits of Sonic Youth’s “Lee is Free,” with the addition of soulful singing overtop and gamelan sounds underneath. Then there are other tracks that sound like Jandek is making a guest appearance with detuned strings chugging along before the entire thing just falls about only to become reassembled as a completely new idea all together.

Sky Needle still shines in some of their less scattered orchestrations like “A Tourist” with   Sarah Byrne’s voice sliding ably between sweet and soulful one second to shaky and crazed the next.

As I’ve mentioned before: how often is it that you get to hear sounds that you have never heard before? Here is another opportunity to do just that.

The “Debased Shapes” LP, the group’s 2nd, was released about a month ago, on September 11 and is currently available from Bruit Direct Disques. Check out the album in its entirety in the soundcloud embed above.