Preternatural by Moulettes

Introduction - An Album That I Almost Never Played

I am not sure why I bought this album, in fact, it was on my Discogs store because I didn’t think I would listen to it again. Then I just put it on and got blown away by the opening song, which is absolutely monstrous in a very impressive way. It has been described as progressive pop and the album impressed a lot of progressive rock journalists on its release in 2017.

Although this album is by the Moulettes, Hannah Miller has become Hannah Moule and the band is now Hannah Moule and the Moulettes, though I feel that is slightly cumbersome, but they can call themselves whatever they want as long as they are comfortable.

The cover features an almost Lovecraftian creature or fossil and really does compliment the sounds that hear coming out of your speakers. Whether it is Cthulu of the Kraken or a hybrid of both, it is an impressive monster.

The band are not noise merchants but just sound absolutely massive, almost Godzilla like. Their music is complex but very accessible and the lyrics of this, their fourth album, deal with strange creatures and the natural world, nautical and mythological symbols and creatures are all in this amazing mix.

You cannot dance to this but it does impress.

The Moulettes website can be found here. And the full album is on YouTube here although this may be removed at some point but it is on the Moulettes channel.

For “Preternatural” the band lineup is:

Hannah Miller (cello, vocals, guitar)

Raevennan Husbandes (vocals, guitar)

Ruth Skipper (vocals, bassoon, autoharp)

Oliver Austin (drums, guitar, synthesizer)

Jim Mortimore (Electric Bass, Double Bass, Moog Bass, Producer)

The album has left reviewers floundering for tags as it contains so many ideas and styles that don’t fit into any predefined genre. This is one of the reasons that I continually play it. I know what is coming but am still shocked at how it still sounds like it is the first play even though I have heard it so many times now.

Behemooth (I don’t know lf this is a spelling mistake but that is what it is on the album)

This sets the sound for the album. Threatening with an announcement that goes:

“In a state of suspended animation are the awesome creatures, the leviathans that roamed the Earth at the dawn of time, raking prehistoric fury on modern man and his puny machines. The weapons will be powerless before the onslaught of the beast” (apologies if I got this slightly wrong as I could not find this text online).

Then the thunder of the song smashes in, and as I say not so much loud as pure power though I could see this destroying speaker systems if the volume was turned up too high.

This sets the scene for the rest of this amazing album. The rest of the songs fit in perfectly with the opening number and is constantly on my music player.

The thinking is although the music is heavy, recalling King Crimson’s “21st Century Schizoid Man” , the choruses and vocals are still gorgeously almost heavenly, yet it all fits together absolutely perfectly.

The rest of the songs on the album are as follows and there is not one that you can skip past. I also love just reading the titles.

Underwaterpainter

Coral

Hidden World (Halicephalobus Mephisto)

Pufferfish Love

Patterns

Rite Of Passage

Medusa

Parasite

Bird Of Paradise (Part II)

Silk