Nomumbah - Loves Moves

Highly evocative of lazy summer days, Love Moves will keep you as chilled as a freshly poured caipirinha. Nomumbah hail from Brazil's second city, Sao Paulo, but their music is a far cry from gun crimes and gang violence. With artists such as Gilles Peterson championing the latin groove sound, a plethora of compilations are now available in this vein. However, Nomumbah are a collective of three musicians and they've created a beautiful collection of original self-penned tracks. Love Moves is guaranteed to turn your living room into a trendy café bar for 45 laid-back minutes. At times it threatens to take off into full-blown house, but just as your feet get tapping, you are brought back to earth with a breathtaking breakdown or solo. As the album continues it becomes absolutely sublime: track seven, Latin Lover, is as accomplished as anything nu-jazz standard-setter St. Germain ever achieved. Although it occasionally ventures too far into electronic blips and pips for the traditional latin listener, Love Moves is accessible and modern enough to be a crowd pleaser. Start crushing ice and squeezing lime now, you're in for a late Brazilian night. [Luc Benyon]