Moulettes Again

The West End Centre in Aldershot seems to be a converted school or something of the kind, and is now a performance venue and art space. We went there last Saturday evening for our second rendezvous with Moulettes, the excitingly unusual band we first saw at the wet and chilly Haslemere Festival back in 2014. We weren't aware there was a support act: a young woman singer-songwriter whose guitar work Ms Formerly Aldgate assured me was quite good, but whose vocals only exacerbated the headache she'd brought into the building and forced us back to the quiet of the bar in search of water. A break allowed her to recover and tackle the main event.

Moulettes have sadly lost Ms Skipper who played autoharp and bassoon, and the only instrumentally unusual element is currently provided by lead Hannah Miller's electric cello. This means their sound has become heavier and more rock-orientated, and makes the arty avant-garde ensemble echo the Diablo Swing Orchestra a bit. The music is still exciting, but in a different direction (signature tune 'Lady Vengeance' doesn't work anything like as well with this new mix of sounds). The latest album is inspired by strange sea creatures, which the band members seem to be wearing in the sleeve art, lit uncannily like a series of stills from a BBC nature documentary.

Afterwards we jostled our way to the merchandise table and found Ms Miller herself flogging CDs: I'm surprised she had the energy. 

PS. It turns out that the reason Ms Skipper - or, as I should say really, Dr Skipper - has vanished is nothing sinister, but a decision that she couldn't hold playing in a band together with her day job as a doctor, which is fair enough.