It’s hard not to treat FourPlay as anything other than a novelty act; as much as they deserve to be taken seriously, for many their output will always be about interesting covers than it is their original work.

But they don’t shy away from this reality; instead, they choose to embrace it. Without doubt it’s the wise thing to do, as their interpretations of the likes of Radiohead, the Strokes, and Miles Davis are absolutely awesome, with the string quartet taking the songs in different directions to the original compositions.

However, the most interesting ‘cover’ on Now to the Future is not one of the instrumentals, but instead their version of jazz standard “Cry Me a River”, on which member Lara Goodridge takes a singing role to great effect. Her vocals feature on several of the originals as well, such as “Evolve or Decay” and “Trust”.

Original compositions like these and the great fun see-sawing buzz of “Bollyrock” are just as interesting as the interpretations of others material throughout Now to the Future, if not as immediately gratifying. FourPlay are an odd assembly, as they don’t really fit into any convenient mould, but there’s no doubt that they’ve got their own thing going on.