Like Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories” and Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Special,” Vulfpeck’s “Thrill of the Arts” (Vulf Records) is a homage to a bygone era in funk and soul. Unlike those two monster, major-label hits, “Thrill” was made on a shoestring budget: about $10,000, according to Jack Stratton, who founded the group in 2011.

The lack of financial resources shows in the best possible way. Its basic tracks recorded live in the studio, “Thrill of the Arts” is gritty, in-your-face, not-prettified funk played with fire by Joe Dart on bass, Woody Goss on keyboards and vibraphone, and Theo Katzman and Mr. Stratton on guitars or drums. When the group formed in Ann Arbor, Mich., Mr. Stratton had as his model the musicians known as the Funk Brothers who played superbly behind the vocalists on countless Motown hits. Also, he wanted to compose and perform tight, knotty instrumentals that could stand on their own.

On “Thrill of the Arts,” available now for purchase at Bandcamp and iTunes, the quartet excels, always with a dollop of wit, whether it is out front or in support of its well-chosen guests. “Welcome to Vulf Records,” a showcase for Joey Dosik on alto saxophone, hits much like the music of the late-’70s jazz-funk supergroup Stuff. Guitarist Blake Mills jumps among several styles on the slinky, oddly charming “Rango II,” while Afro-Cuban percussionist Richie Rodriguez adds congas to “Conscious Club.” Vulfpeck goes it alone on the too-brief “Walkies,” which nods toward “The Streetbeater,” the Quincy Jones-composed theme for TV’s “Sanford and Son.”

Vulfpeck can also step back to let vocalists shine. Charles Jones, a member of Raphael Saadiq’s band, provides old-school plea-singing on the lush “Game Winner,” which also features on guitar 74-year-old David T. Walker, who has played with scores of funk, jazz and solo legends. “Back Pocket,” the first single, finds the band locked in under vocalist Christine Hucal and clarinetist Mark Dover, who issues a wild outro to the pop-funk track.

To speak with Mr. Stratton, who is 27, is to travel along a memory lane that was opened, and was thought to have closed, well before his birth. A conversation about the bass line in the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back,” played by Wilton Felder, who died late last month, reveals that Mr. Stratton has a PDF of the original lead sheet from the recording sessions. The bass lines by Vernie Robbins in Jean Knight’s “Mr. Big Stuff” and Bernard Edwards in Chic’s “Good Times,” recorded in ’71 and ’79, respectively, still grab him. To Mr. Stratton, soul and funk of the ’70s and ’80s are the pinnacle of popular music. “I’d make a thousand-year bet and pass it onto my ancestors that the music of that period will last,” he said by phone last week.