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The Moulettes

King's Place, London

28 March 2014

I think I've accidentally just found my new favourite band.

I was down in London to see Rachel Newton with The Furrow Collective on Friday (great gig), and following their gig a band called The Moulettes were doing the late night slot (10–11:15pm) in the same venue. So it seemed worth staying even though I didn't know a thing about them.

Best decision I've ever made.

There are seven people on stage, most of them sing (female lead vocals), and most of them are multi-instrumentalists. The lead instruments are mainly violin and electric cello, but at least three of them play guitars, two of them play drums, there's a harp, a bassoon... and massive layers of vocal harmonies.

I'm not sure how to describe their songs, there are so many influences in there. But they're all complex, intelligent, and superbly arranged between the many instruments and voices so that no two sound remotely the same.

That's funny, I remember writing almost those exact same words about a band called Mostly Autumn 14 years ago...

It's quite funny to watch their publicity material and reviewers try very hard not to call them prog. Ok, so it's mainly acoustic and they're more likely to have a cello solo than a guitar solo. But in my book, a band this diverse and talented is prog. Even if they don't know it

I can't remember being this excited by a new band since Mostly Autumn. I went straight to the merch desk and bought everything they had. (Two albums, three EPs, with the third album on pre-order.)

Next gig near me is Fibbers on May 2nd, and I intend to be there.