This long-overdue compilation gives the Jimmy Castor Bunch a second chance to be heard for what they were: one of the seminal New York City bands from the period between 1960s soul and late-’70s disco when funk made its mark. Funk was a work music rather than a romance or spiritual thing; in it, people whom soul music had aroused to a consciousness of self and mission took their first forward steps.

In the earliest Castor Bunch sessions, the band, like all their contemporaries (Earth Wind & Fire, Kool & the Gang, Mandrill, B. T. Express, the Fatback Band), were groping for a sound. Often they missed a beat or a note, or both, but this amateurism — the downright clank and squeak of their riffs — endeared them to their fans, many of who were themselves looking for a groove. And occasionally, the Castor Bunch found what they were looking for: even today, 30 years after the fact, you can hardly listen to the harsh rhythmic plunk and the salivating grin of "Troglodyte," a big house-party and disco hit in 1972, without marveling at the goofy raw beat bursts or falling in love with the inspired stupidity of the story line (in which Luther the Troglodyte dances with Bertha Butt the cave woman). Three years later the Castor Bunch found a hit voice as well as a groove and made two huge LPs for Atlantic Records highlighted by "The Bertha Butt Boogie" and "Potential." Here’s where it all started.