'The thing is, their output is only "folk" in the broadest sense of the word, in so far as that loose scene of largely acoustic groups and singer-songwriters attracted a "folk" tag in the absence of any better way of describing it. And in the sense that "folk" is used in the wider media as a catch-all marketing term for all sorts of acoustic music.'

Hit the nail on the head there, I was just about to comment on the original posters statement 'there's nary an electric guitar in sight', but Spleen Cringe beat me to it!

You can't define the 'type' of music by the instruments it is performed on. If The Moulettes are 'folk' because they do not use electric instruments, then the other side of that coin is that bands like Steeleye Span, Fairport, my own band The Bounty Hounds when they perform a traditional song with electric instruments are not! You could play a Black Sabbath song on an acoustic guitar, but it wouldn't make it 'folk' Perhaps the media need to be educated that just because it is acoustic music, or instruments like fiddles, mandolins etc are used it doesn't automatically make it 'folk'.

If I had to pidgeon hole The Moulettes I'd probably call them acoustic prog rock. That said, they have a very listenable sound.

John