Albums
March: 18 albums you need to hear this month
This month's listening sorted
Sherwood & Pinch 'Man Vs. Sofa' (On-U Sound vs Tectonic Recordings)
When one of the masters of dub teams up with a latter-day pioneer of all things heavy, dark and loud, it’s difficult not to be stirred – both emotionally and physically. ‘Man Vs. Sofa’ picks up where Adrian Sherwood and Rob ‘Pinch’ Ellis’ 2015 collaboration ‘Late Night Endless’ left off: with cavernous bass, splintered rimshots and fractal percussion. It hangs on the pair’s innate ability to find light and space amid the sturm und drang – the shards of piano on the paranoiac ‘Midnight Mindset’ or dub deity Lee ‘Scratch Perry’’s soothing vocal contribution to ‘Lies’ – and is further emboldened by the beautiful but skewed reimagining of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s electro-classical gem, ‘Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence’. Stephen Worthy
7/10
