Pleasure Leftists – The Gate LP (Feel It Records)

Pleasure Leftists are a post-punk sensation developed in Cleveland, Ohio back in 2010. Following a couple of extended plays such as self-titled 7”, Elephant Man / Not over, You and a magnificent debut full-length album called The Woods Of Heaven, Pleasure Leftists are back with another wonderful recording simplistically named The Gate. This record is a decent sequence to a preceding album, but it undermines deeper to fundamentals of melancholic post-punk music penetrated with scraps and remnants of emo, goth, deathrock, grunge, alternative and indie music. The band nevertheless retains dreamy sound constituted of gorgeous guitar progressions which have been highlighted with subtle servings of the reverb effect, while the warm sounding basslines are hammering down somewhere in the middle. These guitar progressions are shrewdly taking back to the golden era of British post-punk, but the band still relies on some other influences reaped from additional music genres. Skillful drumming provides an exceptional ambiance to these melodies and the adhesive basslines are fulfilling the gaps among the guitars and drums. The Gate sounds so organic, soothing, detailed, but it’s also crammed with some raw sentiments, abrasiveness, and aggression impersonated with a lot of sense. Outstanding vocal artistry of Haley Morris is unquestionably one of the highlights of this band and undoubtfully a well-hidden gem of contemporary US post-punk scene, and I can’t envision anyone else manipulating the vocals with such comfort as she does. Pleasure Leftists considered everything, from contemplative song structures and mindblowing harmonies, to magnificent arrangements and production, these veterans of Cleveland’s music scene simply cannot fail. The Gate comes with great abstract artwork made in contrasting shades of green, yellow and red. The main focus is on an identical character multiplied in different tones over and over again, so the cover art looks very powerful and it strongly resembles the imagery of the eighties UK post-punk scene. The Gate has been published on a vinyl and compact disc by Feel It Records, but you can also grab it at the Pleasure Leftists Bandcamp page.