The Skyfire Puzzle - Demo CD (Self Released)

by Sean Berry (Bell-Tone)

The Skyfire Puzzle are a new Bellingham combo that are a breath of fresh air - a rock/pop group with a sound that blends modern and retro. There’s crunchy guitars and vintage synths, all fueling a set of four tunes that move the body and feed the mind. Comparisons to The Killers and Interpol are inevitable, and yes, they do sound quite a bit like these popular combos. Then again, this is a demo - a first stab at recording. As they gain more experience their songwriting and recording are bound to improve. Which is not to say this is a bad CD-EP - it’s actually very good. I’ve been listening to it steadily over the last couple of weeks, and it seems to get better the more I listen to it. The recording quality is excellent, and their songwriting and playing are outstanding. The only thing that distracts me (and it could be just me) is the keyboard sounds - they’re meant to be cheesy and retro sounding, but to me they sound like presets on a low-end Roland synth - I’d like to see them play with the sounds a bit more in future recordings. What’s more exciting to me, though, is to see where they take it from here. Overall a great start from one of the more promising bands I’ve heard in a while, with a strong potential to take their thing outside the local scene.

Check out their MySpace