Sufjan Stevens / Osso: Run Rabbit Run

Albums of this ilk should not be immediately written off as 'novelty'. The "Strung Out On..." series has long since been a staple of the punk scene, lending the chamber effect to metal and punk albums.

Now it's the turn of electronic-indie as Osso, an all-female string quartet comprising cello, viola and two violinists recreate Sufjan Stevens ambitious Enjoy Your Rabbit album, a 79 minute exercise in electronic pioneering.

Rather than being an 'in the spirit of...' re-imagining, Run Rabbit Run aims to be a shot-for-shot remake. Utilising the girls' string instruments to perfectly replicate every single bleep, blip and whirl that was present on the original album. Obviously a few concession have been made. This incarnation has been trimmed to 53 minutes in length. The 30 second introductory track "Year of the Asthmatic Cat" (a reference to the Asthmatic Kitty label which put out the original album) has been jettisoned and the running order of the songs have been shifted, ostensibly to allow "Year of the Ox", the current sign of the Chinese zodiac in 2009, to start us off.

Behind the bows are violinists Jannina Barefield and Brooke Quiggins. Violist Marla Hansen and cellist Maria Jeffers. You may remember them from such collaborations as Jay-Z, Alice and Ravi Coltrane, The New Pornographers, Antony and the Johnsons, The Polyphonic Spree, The National, Devotchka and Kanye West. We would cut to a "Imma let you finish" joke about now, but that'd be taking the mic.

We could subject Run Rabbit Run to a side-by-side comparison with Enjoy Your Rabbit, but that'd be somewhat missing the point. Sometimes the format and concept works perfectly. Near the climax of "Year of the Horse" and the song enters the final gallop with the cello gracefully setting the pace and the violins cheekily screeching out at the tops of their voices: it's hard to imagine how this would work any other way.

The ladies showcase their technical prowess on "Year of the Monkey", eliciting sounds from their instruments that we did not know they were capable of. Dives, flitting kisses of strings, painful dissonance, and what passes for the chamber's equivalent of palm-muting all add up to a remarkably inventive attempt at following somebody else's work.

Taken on its own, the playfulness and exuberance may not be enough to draw those not already enamoured with string ensembles back time and again. Just as Steven's original album was not a mass evangeliser for the electro cause.

Still, Osso have taken a remarkably accomplished foundation and rebuilt the house with both a classic style and an exciting post-modern twist: two achievements making Run Rabbit Run an album worth chasing.