One of the recent releases from the famed Downtempo/Nujazz label Ubiquity is Michigan’s Nomo, an 8 piece afrobeat/nujazz orchestra with an extensive brass section. Band leader Elliot Bergman describes their sound as

“We blend minimalist keyboard loops, fuzzed-out bass, soulful group vocals, and rolling blasts from an electric mbira,” explains an enthusiastic Bergman. “Throw in a horn-led midnight funeral procession and hopefully you have a deep listen that’s also a soul shaking dance party for the people!”.

Well this is their second album, after their well-received debut on Ypsilanti records. It’s soulful, groovy Post-fela newschool afrobeat, the first 6 songs are virtually unskippable while track 10 is a Joanna Newsom cover called “Book of Right on”. The opening track “Nu Tones” has been banged to death on mp3blogs and elsewhere, so I skipped a few and chose these 2. BTW the album got a 8.4 on Pitchfork and it’s been mentioned that they are the funnest Michigan live acts around, so check out their live dates on Myspace and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

Nomo – Divisions
Nomo – Fourth Ward
Nomo – Nu tones on Analog Giant
Nomo’s Book of Right on and Joanna Newsom’s original on Clever Titles are so Last Summer.