Moulettes - Preternatural

  by Adrian Janes

published: 30 / 5 / 2016

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Review

Born initially from a reading of a ‘New Scientist’ article on biodiversity, ‘Preternatural’ is an album that swings between awe at the natural world and its inhabitants, and distress at the potentially awful fate many of them face. A groan of forbidding strings and sampled voices warning about Nature’s unpredictable power (which could equally, and revealingly, be as at home in a sensational documentary as a ‘50s sci-fi film) open ‘Behemooth’, a strong demonstration of slick ensemble playing and impassioned harmonies. Its spine is a powerful, intricate riff that could have come from a band like Utopia or Gentle Giant, using an unlikely but effective blend of guitar, cello and bassoon. ‘Underwaterpainter’ has a slight awkwardness to it, both lyrically (“Many are the strange creatures that never sleep”) and in its somewhat leaden pace, although the typical sheer tightness of the performance can’t be denied. A tinge of funky guitar, and a more straightforwardly danceable rhythm compared to much of the album, drive ‘Coral’, a lament for the damage done to such wonders as the Great Barrier Reef. The lyrics seem to move between an understandable defeated pain (“What is done, is done/Can’t undo it”) and a recognition of human responsibility and therefore power to make change, the climactic words “It’s all in the palm of our hands” sung with a very English soulfulness, like a Home Counties Destiny’s Child. This is all part of the song’s genuinely thrilling end, as rising with the voices stern strings head skyward over tremors of drums. ‘Patterns’ is another of the best tracks, full of wonder at those found in the world while sporting a rhythm with a kangaroo’s bounce and a beautifully sung chorus that clings like a limpet. Although the Moulettes’ combination of prog, folk and classical elements doesn’t always work smoothly, one strength that is impressive throughout is a gift for beguiling vocal melodies, carried by the various voices of Hannah Miller, Ruth Skipper and Raevennan Husbandes. On ‘Hidden World’, ‘Pufferfish Love’ (a gentle, anthopomorphic anthem to piscine passion) and ‘Silk’, where the voices are most prominent, this comes through particularly well. ‘Hidden World’ and the wistful ‘Rite of Passage’ (“It’s as if everything to me was new/And sent to thrill my senses”) are particular examples of the sense of wonder that underlie the album. But the same heightened awareness that notices the spider webs of concluding song ‘Silk’ (“Suspended halfway between the miraculous /And the everyday”) also warns of continuing threats and dangers: “You wanted miracles/But we have none.” For an album so rooted in a heartfelt response to the natural world, there’s irony in the occasional feeling that virtuosity and an ability to move through several different tempos in the same song have overcome a more organic rightness to its flow (notably on ‘Parasite’). Similarly, although it’s by no means a hectoring record, there are times when the lyrics veer towards earnest Jon Anderson-isms. For all that, there is a lot of musical strength and band unity, quite something when the combination of styles and instruments is taken into consideration. The Moulettes are asking us to see - we also ought to listen.

Track Listing:-

1 Behemooth
2 Under Water Painter
3 Coral
4 Hidden World (Halicephalobus Mephisto)
5 Pufferfish Love
6 Patterns
7 Rite Of Passage
8 Medusa
9 Parasite
10 Bird of Paradise (Part 11)
11 Silk

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Moulett
http://www.moulettes.co.uk/
https://twitter.com/moulettes