Thunderball may define their music in press releases as “cinematic, dub-laden compositions full of intrigue,” but their newest album on D.C.’s Eighteenth Street Lounge Music label, Cinescope, is a mess – a disorderly combination of too many benders while watching Rat Pack films and “Shaft in Africa” with some forgettable guest vocal tracks.

The album doesn’t start out so cluttered, however. Openers “The Road to Benares” and “Electric Shaka” (with suitably electric vocals by Afrika Bambaataa) evoke imagery of traveling first class from Miami to Morocco with true jet-setting hipsters. But the next few tracks leave you thinking more about Pam Grier than Pan Am. The middle of the album bogs itself down in clichéd 1970s funk with throwaway James Brown-light vocal spasms and lines like “Get down with the feeling/Get down and I’ll show you how.” Afrika Bambaataa shows up again, but this time he’s reminding us about “Thunder in the Jungle, y’all” about 30 times over the span of a four-minute song. And just when you’re settling into the funk, Thunderball throws some dance hall into the mix with the song “Strictly Rude Boy,” featuring Thievery Corporation collaborators Roots and Zeebo. It’s a nice change of pace, but it sounds suspiciously like something Groove Armada has already recorded – but not as good and at half the speed.