We consider the unital Banach algebra $\ell ^{1}(\mathbb{Z}_{+})$ and prove directly, without using cyclic cohomology, that the simplicial cohomology groups ${\mathcal{H}}^{n}(\ell ^{1}(\mathbb{Z}_{+}),\ell ^{1}(\mathbb{Z}_{+})^{\ast })$ vanish for all $n\geqslant 2$. This proceeds via the introduction of an explicit bounded linear operator which produces a contracting homotopy for $n\geqslant 2$. This construction is generalised to unital Banach algebras $\ell ^{1}({\mathcal{S}})$, where ${\mathcal{S}}={\mathcal{G}}\cap \mathbb{R}_{+}$ and ${\mathcal{G}}$ is a subgroup of $\mathbb{R}_{+}$.

For $\delta \ge 1$ and $n\ge 1$, consider the simplicial complex of graphs on $n$ vertices in which each vertex has degree at most $\delta$; we identify a given graph with its edge set and admit one loop at each vertex. This complex is of some importance in the theory of semigroup algebras. When $\delta =1$, we obtain the matching complex, for which it is known that there is 3-torsion in degree $d$ of the homology whenever $\left( n-4 \right)/3\le d\le \left( n-6 \right)/2$. This paper establishes similar bounds for $\delta \ge 2$. Specifically, there is 3-torsion in degree $d$ whenever

$$\frac{\left( 3\delta -1 \right)n-8}{6}\le d\le \frac{\delta \left( n-1 \right)-4}{2}.$$

The procedure for detecting torsion is to construct an explicit cycle $z$ that is easily seen to have the property that $3z$ is a boundary. Defining a homomorphism that sends $z$ to a non-boundary element in the chain complex of a certain matching complex, we obtain that $z$ itself is a non-boundary. In particular, the homology class of $z$ has order 3.