As I have stated many times, one of my favorite things to do is to find up-and-coming artists who have a sound that is unique in the music landscape of today and highlight them on this blog. I especially love finding artists who take elements of styles of music that I grew up loving and make them fresh and palatable to modern music listeners. One artist that I recently found that fits this mold well is The Pleasure Dome. They are an interesting Rock band that makes music that sounds nostalgic and current at the same time. They are definitely inspired by the Punk and Grunge of the 1990s, but they put their own twist on those styles of music to make them sound unique in 2024. The Pleasure Dome is a relatively new band from Bristol, UK that has been steadily on the rise over the last few years. They first started posting music on streaming services in 2019 and over the last couple of years released a few intriguing singles. The Pleasure Dome then released their first EP, Chaos Chaos Revolution, in 2022. This all led to them putting out their debut album, Equinox, in the autumn of 2023. This project received praise from music fans and critics alike, with people gravitating towards The Pleasure Dome’s fun and fuzzy sound that feels like a breath of fresh air among what is big in Rock music right now. Last week, The Pleasure Dome released a new project called Liminal Space. If this project is as well received as their 2023 album, it could help propel them to new heights and assert them as rising stars in Alternative Rock. With that being said, this is how I feel about The Pleasure Dome’s Liminal Space. Please let me know in the comments below how you feel about this project, and also comment the names of any new artists you think I should check out!

Liminal Space starts out with a brief introductory track called ‘The Duke, Pt. 1.’ This intro track contains the opening riff for the next song, ‘The Duke Pt. 2.’ This riff is put over what sounds like people eating dinner in a restaurant. This track feels like someone is tuning their guitar and setting up to perform at some bar or restaurant while the patrons enjoy their drinks and meals. I enjoy this little intro piece because it gives such a DIY Rock sort of feeling. It is as if the band is preparing to wow a crowd who probably knows little about them and is not actually in the setting to particularly listen to them. This is definitely a cool little introduction to the project. As I said, ‘The Duke, Pt. 2’ continues that guitar riff from the intro track. This riff, which drives the melody of the song, has a bright and gritty sound. The tone of this guitar riff is very sunny and pleasant, but it has a raspy and grating mix that makes it super tough. The drum pattern on ‘The Duke, Pt. 2’ is pretty harsh; the way the drums crash on this track adds to the track’s hardy sound and makes the melody feel even more robust. I like how the instrumental cuts out a bit at some points in the track, as it makes the harder sections of ‘The Duke, Pt. 2’ seem extra substantial. The vocal performance on ‘The Duke, Pt. 2’ is very solid. The raspiness of the vocals matches the sandy feeling of the instrumental and makes the song hit that much harder. ‘The Duke, Pt. 2’ is a solid opening track that certainly draws me in as a listener. ‘Your Fucking Smile’ is a lot harder and more intense of a song than the one that precedes it. This song almost has the energy of early 1980s Punk music. It feels like a harder version of the music made by bands like The Ramones, The Clash, or Black Flag. The speedy and ferocious guitar riff that drives this melody has a very dark tone to it. This melody almost has an anxious feeling that makes me want to headbang until I have a headache. The drum pattern on ‘Your Fucking Smile’ is just as intense as the melody. The drums and melody complement each other in a way to makes this extremely brash and bold. As entertaining as the instrumental is, the best thing about ‘Your Fucking Smile’ are the vocals. The vocal performance on this track gives it a raucous energy that is larger than life and makes this song so fun and exciting. ‘Your Fucking Smile’ is a high-key and eccentric track that I really dig and would love to see performed live. The Pleasure Dome slows things down and smooths things out on the next track, ‘Sugar.’ This song has a way different tone than the ones that precede it. This 1:25 track has an acoustic Folk sound. It almost reminds me of music from 1960s artists like Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, or even Bob Dylan. After the intensity of the last track, ‘Sugar’ actually provides a nice little buffer. There is nothing exceptional about this track, but everything about it is enjoyable. The melody is soothing and easy-going, and the vocals are very nice as well. ‘Sugar’ is not as engaging as the songs that precede it, but it is a beguiling little track that shows a different side to The Pleasure Dome. 

The Pleasure Dome brings the harsh energy back in a huge way on the track ‘A Shoulder To Cry On.’ This song is even more jarring than ‘Your Fucking Smile.’ It is the hardest track on the project to this point. This song feels like a combination of multiple styles of Rock music that are related to each other but typically not fused in this manner. I can hear elements of Goth Rock, Hardcore Punk, and even Metal on ‘A Shoulder To Cry On.’ The melody has a very melancholy tone that definitely makes me think of Goth music but also has a bit of an old-school Metal tint to it. The speed and mix of this melody, however, has a major Punk and Grunge element to it. The Punk and Grunge sound is amplified by the drums on this track, which have a pummeling sound that makes the song feel so massive. Like ‘Your Fucking Smile,’ the vocals on ‘A Shoulder To Cry On’ are excellent. The vocals on this track are so dynamic and give an emotional element to the song that makes it stand out. ‘A Shoulder To Cry On’ is another awesome track with an energy that makes me want to rage the night away when I hear it. ‘Suicide’ is another song where The Pleasure Dome slows things down a bit. The first thing I thought of when I first listened to this one was the Shoegaze Alternative Rock music that was big in the early 2000s. It reminds me a lot of the music by bands like Death Cab for Cutie or Bright Eyes. ‘Suicide’ has a bit harder and heavier sound than most of the music by those bands, but this song still certainly has that kind of energy. The melody from ‘Suicide’ is charming; it has a calming sound that I appreciate. There are no drums on ‘Suicide,’ which makes this melody feel all the more touching. The vocals on this song are moving as well. The emotion in the vocals is palpable, making this song feel pretty heavy, especially considering how soft its sound is. ‘Suicide’ is a riveting acoustic track that shows a lighter side to The Pleasure Dome that I can appreciate. The seventh song on this is just literally ‘The Duke, Pt. 1’ and ‘The Duke, Pt. 2’ put together. I do not have to go into how I feel about this one, as I already talked about these tracks separately. I will say it is cool to hear them put together like this, as it almost feels like the beginning of a local show at a bar. The Pleasure Dome closes out Liminal Space with another version of the song ‘Your Fucking Smile.’ This is literally just a clean version of that track. Even though it would have been nice to hear one more distinct song to close out this record, this track has such infectious energy that I do not mind listening to it again. The Pleasure Dome wanted to send this EP out with a bang, and they certainly achieved that with ‘Your Perfect Smile.’

In my opinion, it has felt like the Rock music world has gotten a bit stale over the last several years. It feels like so many artists are trying to hop onto whatever trends are popular and are not pushing boundaries or differentiating themselves in any way. So many Rock artists today are trying to make their version of Pop-Punk or Post-Hardcore music, and it has made the genre feel super saturated. As I said in the intro, however, The Pleasure Dome is such a breath of fresh air in comparison to this trend. Liminal Space does not lean into those trends at all. Instead, this project takes elements of a bunch of other old-school styles and Rock and Punk music and makes them sound novel and palatable in 2024. Liminal Space has such infectious and rowdy energy for the most part, but also has softer elements for people who are not into that kind of boisterous sound. This is a project that I think would be so great to see performed in person because of how tangible its sound is. Liminal Space is a captivating project that makes me super pumped to keep following The Pleasure Dome, as I would love to see what they do next.

BEST TRACKS – ‘YOUR FUCKING SMILE,’ ‘A SHOULDER TO CRY ON,’ ‘SUICIDE’

7.94/10