If Los Angeles has a soul underground, Orgone is its heartbeat. For more than two decades, this collective of musicians has been laying down grooves so deep and earthy they feel like they’ve been pulled straight from the California soil — sun-baked, dusty, and absolutely unshakeable. Their sound fuses the grit of late-’60s soul, the swagger of early-’70s funk, and the unfiltered humanity of a jam played long past midnight.
In a world of digital polish, Orgone has always kept it analog — in sound, in spirit, and in soul.
Funk Roots in the City of Angels
Orgone was born in the late 1990s in the neighborhoods of Los Angeles, when childhood friends and session players Dan Hastie (keys) and Sergio Rios (guitar) decided to chase the sound that had first set their imaginations on fire: raw, old-school funk. They weren’t interested in samples or slick production — they wanted to make the real thing, the way it used to be done, with real players in a real room.
What started as a handful of jam sessions quickly grew into a full-blown band. Drawing on the city’s deep melting pot of styles — funk, soul, Afrobeat, psych rock, and Latin grooves — Orgone began to forge a sound that was unmistakably their own.
The name came from “orgone energy,” a term coined by psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich to describe a universal life force. For this group of musicians, that energy was groove — something primal, vital, and impossible to fake.
Finding the Sound
By the early 2000s, Orgone had become a fixture of LA’s underground soul and funk scene, performing marathon sets at warehouse parties and small clubs, often alongside kindred spirits like Breakestra, The Lions, and Connie Price & The Keystones. Their shows felt like time travel: musicians in vintage suits, amps humming, horns blazing, sweat dripping off the ceiling.
Their breakthrough came with the 2007 album The Killion Floor — recorded live on analog tape at their own Killion Sound studio in North Hollywood. It was a love letter to the deep-funk revival happening worldwide, featuring blistering instrumentals and the powerhouse vocals of Fanny Franklin, whose voice recalled the ferocity of Lyn Collins and the grace of Marva Whitney.
Tracks like “Who Knows Who” and “Funky Nassau” (a scorching cover of the Bahamian classic) put Orgone on the map, earning praise from funk aficionados and DJs across the globe.
The Killion Sound Ethos
Killion Sound became both a studio and a manifesto — a creative hub where everything was recorded live, to tape, no shortcuts. Rios and Hastie built it themselves, determined to capture the warmth and imperfections that define real soul music. Over the years, it’s become a spiritual home not just for Orgone but for a whole community of West Coast funk and soul artists.
Each Orgone album — from Bacano (2008) and Cali Fever (2010) to Beyond the Sun (2015) and Reasons (2022) — has expanded the band’s palette while staying true to their roots. You can hear Afrobeat grooves colliding with P-Funk psychedelia, dusty jazz flourishes blending into disco rhythms, and flashes of Latin percussion that remind you: this is Los Angeles funk, where cultures and sounds constantly intersect.
A Band of Many Voices
Orgone has never been about one face or one sound. Over the years, they’ve worked with an ever-evolving roster of singers and collaborators — including Adryon de León, Kelly Finnigan, and Jungle Fire’s musicians — each bringing new energy and stories to the mix. That rotating cast keeps the band in constant motion, alive with new textures and emotional tones.
Their instrumentals are just as compelling — sharp, cinematic funk journeys that showcase the band’s deep chemistry. You can feel the muscle memory in every hit, every horn stab, every bass thump.
The Live Experience
Seeing Orgone live is like being dropped into the middle of a late-night funk explosion. They don’t just play songs; they build momentum until the whole room is levitating. The rhythm section — anchored by Rios’s taut guitar lines and Hastie’s lush keys — drives everything forward, while the horns and percussion weave a fabric that’s both tight and chaotic in the best way.
It’s no wonder they’ve shared stages with acts like Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Galactic, The Roots, and Trombone Shorty. Their reputation as a powerhouse live act is well earned — because Orgone doesn’t rehearse a vibe, they are the vibe.
Keeping the Flame Burning
More than twenty years in, Orgone remains one of the most respected names in modern funk. They’ve stayed fiercely independent, true to their sound and community, carrying the torch for a style of music that thrives on sweat, groove, and connection.
While trends have come and gone, Orgone’s mission has never changed: to make people move, to keep the spirit of real funk alive, and to remind us that rhythm is a kind of freedom.
Because for Orgone, funk isn’t nostalgia — it’s now. It’s the pulse that connects generations, the universal energy that keeps the body and the soul in motion.
And every time they hit that first downbeat, you can feel it: the orgone energy still flows strong.