Fourplay - Now To The Future (Album)
» FourPlay- Fusion of a lifetime - August 31, 2006
I had never heard of FourPlay String Quartet before I heard this CD – but now that I have I am thoroughly addicted. What incredible music! I sat down to listen and I didn’t move until the album was over. Described as “Australia’s world renowned rock string quartet” I don’t know what I was expecting but it wasn’t what I heard. This band is impossible to place in a specific genre – although it may seem like an astute marketing ploy to include the word ‘rock’ – these folk obviously just love music, of any kind. Listening to ‘Now To The Future’ is a crash course in contemporary music inclusive of any darn genre you can think of. Their music is intelligent, interesting, textured and complex while remaining accessible and damn enjoyable.
FourPlay have recorded three studio albums, and have also released a remix album and a series of three 3" CD singles: released independently (on FourPlay's own label Smart Pussy Records). A comprehensive Australian tour to launch the album will be announced shortly. I urge you to check this band out – they are fucking amazing! The band started life as a classical string quartet, originally made up of friends from the Australian Youth Orchestra. Inspired by the Kronos, Balanescu and Brodsky Quartets’ blurring of the boundaries between classical and rock music, they began playing rock covers for friends. These days the band is comprised of Lara Goodridge (violin & vocals), Tim Hollo (viola & vocals), Shenton Gregory aka Shenzo Gregorio (viola and vocals) and Peter Hollo (cello & vocals) playing as an electric string quartet.
The cover art of ‘Now To The Future’ is quirky and I found the aesthetic really appealing. The packaging is printed on 100% recycled paper and all greenhouse emissions form recording and production have been offset by: www.climatefriendly.com. Good looking and responsible too. Their website: www.fourplay.com.au has a great function that allows the viewer to change the aesthetic/layout which I really liked too. There is a great sense of freedom is being asked to change something to suit yourself and that seems indicative of their relationship with music.
FourPlay approach songs written by other people in a refreshingly original way: they make them their own. Previously they have played songs by: The Clouds, Sinéad O'Connor, Pop Will Eat Itself, The Velvet Underground, Metallica, the Beastie Boys and Jeff Buckley. ‘Now To The Future’ includes innovative versions of 2+2=5 (Radiohead), Reptilia (Julian Casablancas/The Strokes), songs by jazz greats Miles Davis (All Blues) and Charles Mingus (Goodbye Pork Pie Hat) and a lovely version of Cry Me A River (Arthur Hamilton). The songs remain the songwriters’ but the arrangement demonstrates a plastic understand of music and a confidence I admire. It’s a pleasure to see a familiar song in a totally new light.
The original songs are fascinating – the vocals of Lara Goodridge remind me a little of The Cocteau Twins vocalist Elizabeth Fraser. Her voice is soft but powerful: quiet but assertive. Her phrasing is interesting, very individual. The songs are down right impossible to describe. They are innovative and demonstrate a wonderful love of music of all kinds. There is something here for music lovers of all kinds and then a little more to keep you on your toes and curious. The quality of the recording is warm and intimate with a sense of space that transports you to another place. It was produced and mixed by Magoo (Regurgitator, Midnight Oil, TISM) and engineered by Justin Tresidder (george, Resin Dogs, Josh Abrahams), a viola player himself. Like FourPlay’s music the recording is a lethal combination of the innovative and new and a chamber musicians love of intimate strings and string texture in sound.
I highly recommend this album to anyone who loves music. I found it genuinely inspiring to listen to. At moments it’s like The Dirty Three, then The Cocteau Twins, then like Peter Sculthorpe soundscapes, then gypsy jazz: then like nothing you’ve ever heard before – unless you’re a fan of FourPlay String Quartet – which I now am. Bloody great album!!! Check this band out right now – it may change your understanding of music that you like and inspire you to check out stuff you never thought you’d enjoy. Music of all kinds is great: from chamber music to jazz, world music to rock and pop. It’s healthy to listen to all kinds of musical voices and appreciate them all. FourPlay do and it makes them strong and interesting! How cool.
