Old-Line Funk Tradition With Synths and Rap : SLAPBAK “If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Funk Wid It!” Toxic Funk (** 1/2)

The title of this long-delayed follow-up to Slapbak’s 1992 debut album, “Fast Food Funkateers,” might suggest that the Mission Viejo-based R&B; band has opted not to budge from its funk-traditionalist stance.

But Jara Harris, Slapbak’s leader and do-it-yourself studio auteur, clearly has been paying attention to recent developments in the world of beat-driven music.

“If It Ain’t Broke” deploys lots of the silky, slinky, rainbow-arcing synthesizer lines that Dr. Dre (who probably got the device from Kool & the Gang) has been using to give his productions a distinctive yet uncluttered backdrop. There’s also more rapping here, courtesy of band member TJ Quake, whose singsong style is smooth, light and friendly rather than in-your-face and gangsta-mean.

Even with these innovations, Slapbak’s roots are still firmly planted in old-line funk tradition. The album’s party songs have the boisterous communal spirit of George Clinton’s P-Funk crews. Harris’ favorite vocal device is the drawled, sleepy-slurry approach of Sly Stone, and when the guitars move to the front, the wailing echoes of Hendrix, Prince and Funkadelic ring loud.

Harris sometimes uses a full band--which includes his siblings, Julie, Jeff and Janine--but more often plays and sings virtually all the parts himself. Given near-total autonomy, he can fall into Prince-like excess. The album is almost 70 minutes long, and two or three of its 15 tracks sound like filler. “Fast Food Funkateers” was pithier, more consistently catchy than “If It Ain’t Broke.”

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But Slapbak’s fund of funk and fun clearly hasn’t gone broke. “Pure Funk” and “We Come to Jam” are party calls that live up to their names. “Everybody Down,” a hammering, rock-based number, and “Sway,” with its more rubbery, spacey feel, are strong tracks whose themes honor Clinton’s dictum that funk, in addition to its obvious body-shaking appeal, is a salve for the mind and spirit. Both tracks point to dancing and enjoying music as a symbol for--and a physical pathway to--the resilience it takes to survive life’s troubles. “Sharpened Knife,” a hard-wailing rocker, is Harris’ version of a sharp slap to the face to bring a depressed and faltering person back to his or her senses.

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While Slapbak makes sweeping pronouncements about life (“We are a generation of trouble . . . We must not be dominated by the wicked ways of the world,” Harris announces on “Sharpened Knife”), it also can be intimate in assessing the everyday problems that dog relationships. In “Trick,” Harris trots out his troubled, Sly-style drawl as he plays an overburdened guy trying to answer a lover who feels neglected. It’s the problem of millions of harried, too-busy, too-ambitious couples, condensed into a catchy tune that seems to eavesdrop on their arguments.

While slow-groove numbers such as the smoothly seductive “Love to Love You” and the expendable “Can I Flow” and “Take My Time” are routine boudoir fare, “Wake Up” is a glimpse into the bedchamber that gives a knowing and very human look at the everyday frustrations facing couples whose erotic biorhythms run out of sync with each other.

Slapbak is trying to get its career rhythms back in sync: “Funkateers” came out on a major label, Reprise, but received scant promotional support. Now the band is trying to make its way with its own record company and independent distribution. Fans of P-Funk, Prince, Hendrix and Sly should find plenty on “If It Ain’t Broke” that’s worth funkin’ wid.

(Available from Jones & O’Malley, 10477 Riverside Drive, North Hollywood, CA 91602. (818) 762-8353.)

* Slapbak plays Friday at Winston’s Beach House, 1921 Bacon St., San Diego. 9:30 p.m. $7. (619) 222-3802.

Ratings range from * (poor) to **** (excellent), with *** denoting a solid recommendation.