With its understated wah-wah guitar and prominent horn stabs, “Return of the Panther” sounds like a theme song for a hip secret agent from the ’70s. Starting with the third track, Cinescope really gets funky. This sprawling, exotic atmosphere spills over into the next track, “Electric Shaka”. Throughout the track, lush orchestral strings give the track an epic feel and enhance the cinematic quality of the music. The album opens with the shimmer of an exotic glissando and soon proceeds to a steady beat augmented by Indian stringed instruments and hand percussion. If more people could hear the group’s work, the Thunderball fanbase would surely increase exponentially.Ĭinescope kicks off with “The Road to Benares”, which turns out to be the start of a musical journey of sorts.
This latest release proves that Thunderball’s lack of mainstream success is a matter of exposure, not style. All these elements surface on the group’s latest album, Cinescope. On its two previous full-length albums, Ambassadors of Style and Scorpio Rising, the group established a dance style that drew upon elements of downtempo, funk, and film music. Thunderball is the name for the Washington, D.C.-based production group consisting of Sid Barcelona, Steve Raskin, and Rob Myers. On their latest album, the aptly titled Cinescope, the group delivers 12 tracks which contrast much of today’s abstract, overly cerebral electronica and could serve as a soundtrack for an imagined movie. This tendency bodes well for the music of the trio known as Thunderball.
#THUNDERBALL CINESCOPE MOVIE#
People who would never sit through the abstract instrumentals of a Beethoven symphony or a Mozart string quartet will rush to the record store to snag copies of the movie music that accompanies swashbuckling pirates or mischievous hobbits. Published on The Mysterious Mr.In the 21st century, the market for movie soundtrack recordings is surprisingly strong. Genre Downtempo Contains tracks The Road to Benares Anyone looking for a good time or a good record should check it out.” As PopMatters puts it “Thunderball demonstrates a love for movies, seventies funk, exotic sounds… Cinescope is broad in scope and flawless in execution. Every track on the album is like a theme song to a different kind of film, and feels like changing channels on a sonic journey. On Cinescope, Thunderball bridges the gap between Electro, Bollywood soundtracks, Hip-Hop, Drum&Bass, Soul, Funk, Reggae, Jazz, and Lounge, all awash in beautifully lush string orchestrations. Miss Johnna M also gets to bubble her percussive vocals on the Bossa-flavored “ChicaChiquita.” The group enlisted the rudie talents of Thievery Corporation vocalists Rootz and Zeebo of See-I to create the dub ragga anthem, “Strictly Rudeboy.” And the godfather of Hip Hop, Afrika Bambaataa, drops his booming vocal stabs and hooks on the sitar-laden Electro Breaks tune, "Electric Shaka."
On the sixties rave-up track “Get Up with the Get Down” Mustafa teams up with Miss Johnna M to rock the party. Long time collaborator Mustafa Akbar adds his retro 70's-style vocals to the jazz-funk thriller, “Return of the Panther” and croons soulfully on the introspective, “Elevated States.” Cinescope begins with “The Road To Benares,” an epic sitar and violin suite that brings the dancefloor to the steps of the mighty Ganges.
With this release, Thunderball broaden their scope pushing the boundaries of their music both sonically and vocally. After years of collaboration (that also led to the formation of Fort Knox Five) Steve Raskin and Sid Barcelona officially brought Rob Myers into Thunderball on this album, permanently adding his voice to their exotic musical journey. Originally released on Thievery Corporation's ESL Music imprint in 2006, Cinescope features features twelve tracks that fuse Latin Funk, Afro rhythms, Indian Dub, and Mediterranean Soul with electronic production to create cinema for the ears.
#THUNDERBALL CINESCOPE SERIES#
The third Thunderball album to be re-released on Fort Knox Recordings is a series of cinematic soundscapes that explore a vivid range of technicolor grooves made for the widescreen. The record is a cinematic tribute to twelve separate and completely non-existent films.” - BPM Magazine “With their album Cinescope, the dons of the District are set to blow on a whole other level. "Thunderball are back, dripping in Eastern sitar melodies and tempting drum lines." - URB Magazine
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