Moulettes - Wonder and Possibility

Ruth Skipper

Moulettes
Hannah Miller - Lead vocals, cello, guitar
Oliver Austin – Drums, guitar, percussion, vocals
Ruth Skipper – Co-lead vocals, bassoon, autoharp
Jim Mortimore – Bass, vocals
Raevennan Husbandes - Electric Guitar, co-lead vocals

Jim Mortimore

Date - 27th November 2015
Venue - Union Chapel, London
Current Album - Preternatural (Pre-order from February 2016)

Raevennan Husbandes

Next concert/gig/tour
2016
21/04 Southampton, The Brook
22/04 Oxford, The Cellar
23/04 London, Islington Assembly Hall
24/04 Bristol, Exchange
26/04 Bury St Edmunds, Apex
27/04 Birmingham, The Oobleck
28/04 Leicester, The Musician
29/04 Edinburgh, La Belle Angele
03/05 York, The Duchess
04/05 Sheffield, Greystones
05/05 Manchester, Band on the Wall
06/05 Stroud, The Convent
07/05 Falmouth, Tolmen Centre

As you might know, this is not a blog for end of year lists, not for awarding one, nor two, nor three, nor any stars. It is rare to compare musicians or rate technique, but this concert was one that sticks in the mind and the heart. The Moulettes are worth more attention, digging that bit deeper into their music (and perhaps their ideas and motivations etc too).

Hannah Miller

Normal service resumes....

Dark earth, sickly deep. Power and enchantment but never twee. The throwing of us to the bottom of the well, our dreams on pennies or bodies, we do not know which yet.

The Observatory - Alphabetti curses, so many smears and traces like a multi-layered crime scene investigation. A death of minor kills.

Danger, spider cannibalism. Modern mythological lures, dazzling lights in the songs that pull us further into the dark sky. Modern drug addled hypnotism, the hissing of reptilian eyes.

Skin of an Octopus - Cord and trip, discord and energy, keep catching us with different traps, never with the same bait or snare.

Nematode Worm - Purpose, entwining, wrap around. A Star Trek call, aliens sucked into a vacuum of darkness with an ever decreasing echo.





Songbird - Sails in front of our eyes rather than blowing us into the storm, we are the audience once more, and for one song this is a conventional gig again. Just as we sit comfortably, re-marking the distance between us and the band, we hear the accordion of Anja McCloskey and the mystery of the penny arcade draws us closer. An automaton that deserves more than small change to bring it to life.

Anja McCloskey

Between Two Mirrors - Other worldly, again not sticking, not holding in the mold. The jelly radiates a volcanic pulse, an active ingredient, squeezing the body to make us not altogether human. Ghibli child's play, not as we remember it as safe adults but as we experience it in our youth. We felt it then, with wonder and the heat of possibility. It is the way to feel this music.

AL.