It’s already been out for a couple of weeks, and this slice of sexy, tripped-out samba-pop deserves all the praise its been getting.

London-based musicians Nina Miranda and Chris Franck have been around for a while and have some serious pedigree. They’ve collaborated with many of the world’s funkiest musicians: Afrobeat drumming legend Tony Allen, Babba Maal, Sly and Robbie, Nitin Sawhney, Jah Wobble, Femi Kuti, Bebel Gilberto and more. And that lot wouldn’t hang out with you if you didn’t have some serious chops.

As Smoke City, they gave their sultry Latin vibe a dubby, trip hop edge, and produced the Levi’s ad smash ‘Underwater Love’. And Da Lata, Chris’s on-off collaboration with DJ Patrick Forge (who compiled the Rebirth of the Cool compilations), produce some seriously funky pan-global grooves.

With Zeep, now on their second album, the mood is just as joyous and sexy, but more light-hearted. While it would fit perfectly at Womad or Glastonbury, this is not remotely worthy music: it’s soulful, laidback but eclectic, with a spring in its step, a wiggle on its hips and a smile on its face.

Nevertheless, the lyrics are no mere fluff, dealing on occasion with darker subject matter than you might expect. Alongside love, hope and worship of the natural world, there is loneliness, loss and emotional disturbance: this is no hippy-dippy “hello clouds, hello trees, everything’s great” job.

Nina has a gorgeous voice: subtle, jazzily soulful and sexily swooping. Her vocals weave naturally through a warm, organic mix of Latin percussion and rhythms, dubby grooves, jazzy guitar, accordion and bossa nova backing vocals. The album sounds like it belongs on a Brazilian beach, barbeque or lazy summer afternoon in the park.

They both sound very at home with this material – like they’ve grown up with it, and it’s natural to them, rather than trying too hard to be cool, rootsy and authentic. ‘Elasticated Master Piece’ kicks thing off in style, with ‘bababa’ backing vocals and bluesy guitar peels combined with a samba vibe and funky Balaeric thump. She’s a “midnight panther walking through the streets” – and you can believe it!

The floaty ‘Light Your Touch’ has its head in the clouds, with liquid guitar and some groovy organ noodling.’Ghost Town’ gets a cheeky Brazilian remake; and the lilting ‘Just a Little Bit’ (“Just a little bit of you / mixed up with a little piece of me…“) is extremely lovely.

Cinematic instrumental ‘Abstrata’ steps out of laidback mode, upping the tempo and chucking the whole kitchen sink into the mix. Funky breakbeats, Eastern violins, car chase strings and jazzy drums meld to great effect. Then it’s back to lotus-eater mode for ‘Lazy’s sensual finale. Then, all too soon, it’s over.

The festival season – and the summer - may be over, but put People and Things on, and you may just forget that fact…

Ben Wood