Funk is more than a musical genre, it’s a way of life. And since that mindset is what Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band embodies every day, the collective titled its fourth studio album Funk Life.

The new record is as sassy and self-possessed as lead track “24/7,” a fearless plunge into contagious rhythms and bold horn hits. Recorded at Echo Mountain Studios in the Booty Band’s hometown, Asheville, N.C., Funk Lifepaired the musicians with engineer Julian Dreyer(Band of Horses, Avett Brothers, Zac Brown Band). The band was still arranging a couple of songs when tracking began, leaving room for the element of surprise. That spirit of excitement is captured on tracks like “Quick E,” an instrumental with plenty of swagger and vintage cool; the bold, woman-power manifesto “Mama Feelgood”, originally recorded by Lyn Collins; and “Wake Yo’Self,” a caffeinated dance track that builds to a keys-driven crescendo.

Funk Life is as modern as it is rooted in time-tested textures. The album was conceived in the back seat of a 1972 Impala while listening to a mix tape of P-Funk, Sly and the Family Stone, Buddy Miles, Aretha Franklin, Tower of Power, and James Brown. So pervasive are those influences that the track “Living the Dream” came to keyboardist/vocalist Mary Frances-Mama Funk when, in a sleep-charged vision, George Clinton and Garry Shider of P-Funk taught her the melodic riff.