They are part of an explosion of great bands who take the funk, soul and blues of the 60s and 70s and build it into an entirely modern sound. Bands like The Dap Kings, Breakestra (some of whom are also members of Orgone) and The Bamboos all manage to make these genres sound thoroughly modern. And while Orgone definitely fit in the same camp, they don’t have quite the same bite as the other bands.

Songs such as ‘Who Knows You’ and ‘Do Your Thing’ show an obvious love of the source material, but don’t really seem to add too much to it. Orgone have done a lot of work backing other artists and at times this seems apparent in the music; it’s not quite strong enough to warrant real praise, while at the same time never actually being bad.

The strongest songs are those where the influences speak of music from outside the USA. The aforementioned ‘Funky Nassau’, ‘It’s What You Do’, ‘Dialed Up’ and several other tracks reek of the Afro-beat sound of Fela Kuti and work all the better for it; ‘Dialed Up’ even ventures into the world of disco and is utterly stunning. But where the influences are more Memphis than Lagos, the standard definitely drops.

Not a bad album then, but at 17 songs long, one that could perhaps have done with a bit of critical trimming. While their upcoming live dates are going to be must-see events, on record they could probably just do with being more like the soul brothers James Brown and Mr Kuti, and a little less like the Blues Brothers.

Orgone’s profile on MySpace