Review: Pleasures – Torture Triangle

Style: Progressive Rock, Psychedelic (?), Hyperpop (??), Trance (???) (clean, female vocals)
Recommended for fans of: I don’t fucking know
Review by: Sam
Country: US-FL
Release date: 31 March, 2023

Let me just start this review by stating that I have absolutely no idea what the fuck I’ve been listening to the past week. I was browsing the /r/progmetal subreddit like I often do, and I came across this post talking about this “spacy synthy psychedelic progressive rock” album. The provided sample song sounded interesting enough, and it came out a few days ago, so it seemed like a great album for a review. But this is where the weirdness starts. Apparently, this isn’t psych rock at all? At least, if my friends (who are way more into psych and stoner than I am) are to be believed. But then if not psych rock, what on earth has this Floridan quartet been cooking?

Let’s just start by describing the sound as is. Annoyed as my classification-seeking, genre-accuracy obsessing brain may be, sometimes it’s better to let it go and form judgement without context to latch onto. What immediately jumped out to me were the spacy sounding synths that WIUWIU all over the record, and the slick progressive drumming that drives the tempo and overall song direction. Notable too are singer Katherine Larson’s vocals which are smooth and a little bit sensual. Words that come to mind when attempting to describe this sound are: smooth, spacy, progressive, trance, energetic, slick, and yes, psychedelic too.

Opener “Banana Split” (yeah…) sucks you right in with the aforementioned combination as trancey synths and sensual vocals send you to outer space to the beat of intricate electronic sounding drum patterns. The drumming style was the most recognizable aspect in this for me as it pretty closely resembles the modern prog metal style as popularized by Baard Kolstadt from Leprous, using busy patterns in odd-time (I think 5/8?) that still groove with lots of slick fills. Once it gets to the chorus the song drops off a little bit and goes into trance mode, riding out on a simple 4/4 disco beat while repeating the chorus and ramping up the intensity until the end. So at this point the genres we’ve identified are prog, a little bit of psych, disco, and trance music. Yeah… Just another Sunday with this band.

But that’s not all, because “Cherry Crush” now also throws hyperpop and dnb drumming into the mix. It has a linear structure, but this time opting for a more chill (albeit still energetic) vibe before it explodes at the end. A friend described it as “Madonna on psych dnb” and I can’t argue with that. “Karmakaze Pilot” is a more traditional prog song that throws some solos into the mix and a bunch of different sections, but it’s still very far from standard. The climax of “LA-1000” also comes close to a prog metal type climax stylistically, but hypnotic grooves and synths carry the bulk of the song. I’m not going further in depth on any other of the songs as they vary on the same overall sound, but they’re all well-written and bring something unique to the table. 

I’m not sure what I should think of this band. It’s one of the most unique things I’ve come across in my reviewing career. I can’t say I could really find an outright flaw in this record, but I also don’t think I was part of the intended audience in the first place. Most of these songs I enjoy listening to, and I’d really appreciate the change of pace if they came on shuffle in a playlist, but I’m not sure if I’d revisit the record in its entirety much. If anything, Torture Triangle is a fun, engaging record. I’m pretty sure there is someone who will hear this and think “THIS IS MY HOLE! IT WAS MADE FOR ME!!” Who that someone is, I do not know, but I encourage everyone reading this to find out if they are that someone, because this is certainly worth hearing.

Recommended tracks: Banana Split, Cherry Crush, Cobra Daydream
You may also like: the fuck do I know? More Pleasures? They have three albums.
Final verdict: 7/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube | Facebook | RYM page

Label: Independent

Pleasures is:
– Katherine Larson (vocals, guitar)
– Morgan Soltes (bass, synth)
– Roger Lanfranchi (drums, sampler, keys)
– Riley Morgan (synth, visuals)