As three-quarters of the funky Meters, you don’t expect Porter-Batiste-Stoltz to offer many lyrical insights on their debut studio album, Expanding The Funkin Universe. This is intelligent funk, of course, as the complex melodic and rhythmic boogalooing here will attest. But this trio knows you came for the party, and so much of what you hear on this disc is chanted, not sung: “We keep it funky! We bring the noise!” (“Bring The Flood”), “All we wanna do is get funky for you!” (“All We Wanna Do”), “Doom Doom!” (“Doom Doom”), and even “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Ouw!” (“OUW”).

As funk philosophy, it doesn’t expand the universe much, landing somewhere between Sly and the arrival of the P-Funk Mothership on the cosmic timeline. But PBS have been riding this type of groove for a long time, and so there are little surprises around every musical corner; for example, the way “Doom Doom” careens to a stop in order to hit the power chords hard or how “Bring The Flood” falls into a black hole of dub only to crawl back out and resume its dark and slightly sinister shape. “Seraphina Lives” is a nice change of pace, a hybrid of motherland drums and Delta slide that’s nearly on a par with Corey Harris’ similar genre experiments.

And, like any good party band, these guys know just when to step back for a slow one, as on “I Believe,” which sounds like Hendrix’ “Little Wing” pulled backwards through one of Curtis Mayfield’s more optimistic moments. Still, this is all about fonk with a prominent o: listen to the way “Comin’ At Ya” hints at the Dragnet theme on bass while chickens scratch all over the top end and the beat stutters around it. It hardly needs to be said, especially for funk aficionados, but Porter, Batiste, and Stoltz do an excellent job of transferring their acclaimed live act into ones and zeroes for the benefit of those of us who can’t make it out this week. Indeed, the multigenre, multilayered approach these three take to the classic New Orleans groove is complex enough to warrant a lot more studio time. Let’s hope they make a hole in their schedule.