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The majority of this material was written in November 2006, when the band holed up in Hobart, TAS, for a two week writers' retreat. As it's the fourth album, and has been forthcoming for a very long time, the band decided it was to be Fourthcoming forever. Yeah, we know.
The original pieces came together in many different ways: an arrangement very naturally developed around an original and sassy cabaret piece of Lara's; Peter strummed a crazy hoedown on the cello, over which Tim and Lara created melodies while Shenzo pioneered the "banjola" solo; Tim created a bizarre and crunchy viola loop which inspired riffs that borrowed from M.I.A. and weird effects patches; Shenzo idly plucked a dream-like chord sequence over a funky viola-percussion loop; and when a dub jam transformed into drum'n'bass somewhere around the middle, the as-of-yet unrecognised desire by the world for d'n'b string quartet music was realised.
As for the tasty selection of covers, manager Jordan Verzar wisely suggested that Rage Against The Machine be considered, and what better than their most famous track "Killing In The Name"? While the politically-charged lyrics are gone from this instrumental version, none of the energy and power are lost in translation. Tim sang lead vocals for the first time on one of his favourite songs, Leonard Cohen's "Famous Blue Raincoat", given a strikingly faithful rendition despite the instrumentation. Another favourite, The Cocteau Twins, brought blissful shoe gaze to the table, while the complex arrangements of indie superstar Sufjan Stevens soared when rendered through loops and agility.
As FourPlay is a band of highly time-poor individuals, it was decided that the recording of Fourthcoming was to be a unique event — a small space at the Canberra Street Theatre was hired for half a week, amps and a P.A. were lugged in, and the sound was perfected with the help of Liberty Kerr (live sound) and Justin Tresidder (recording engineer). Three performances were recorded in front of a lucky few, the best takes were chosen, and once again Magoo stepped in for the mixing. The result - a live album of new material, capturing once and for all the force of the band live!
The packaging is printed on 100% recycled paper. All greenhouse emissions form recording and production have been offset by: www.climatefriendly.com
Full tracklisting:
- Everything Was Going Fine... — original by Peter Hollo & FourPlay String Quartet
- Butter Girl — original by Lara Goodridge & FourPlay String Quartet
- Seekers Who Are Lovers — Cocteau Twins
- The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out To Get Us! — Sufjan Stevens
- Venice Underwater — original by Shenzo Gregorio and FourPlay String Quartet
- A Grain of Truth — original by FourPlay String Quartet
- Rudd-a-dub Dub — original by FourPlay String Quartet
- Killing In The Name — Rage Against The Machine
- Spanish Castle Magic — Jimi Hendrix
- Where The Sun Don't Shine — original by Tim Hollo & FourPlay String Quartet
- Famous Blue Raincoat — Leonard Cohen
- Lover Man — James Edward Davis, Ram Ramirez & Jimmy Sherman, originally performed by Billie Holliday
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