Funk usually brings to mind a heaving beat, thick, slapping bass lines and fashions straight out of "Shaft."

Captain Funk, a fixture on Tokyo's club scene, has long embraced this particular definition of funk. Drawing on a musical vocabulary that begins with Sly and the Family Stone, the Captain's groove encompasses everything from '80s new wave to German techno.

An evening with Captain Funk behind the decks is apt to be a sweaty one. For alter-ego Tatsuya Oe, though, funk is more than just a happening dance floor.

"There is a difference between funk and funky," he says. "Funky is all about the beat or the bounce. Funk is something more spiritual."

This dual conception of funkiness might explain the unique direction that Oe explores on "Songs of the Siren," the new Captain Funk album. Past Captain Funk releases have been party records for the most part, but this one is more personally intense.

"It is," he says, "the expression of the center of my being.

"Funk ultimately is to release yourself, like George Clinton or Miles Davis did. I feel as though a weight has been lifted."

On "Songs of the Siren" Oe covers an eclectic range of musical styles while pushing boundaries even further, reaching into the Americana of steel guitars and bluesy brass sections with ironic side glances at hard rock. The lyrics are more involved than your average dance release. U2's "Pop" album, with its blend of roots rock and dance-floor sensibility, is a close approximation.

"I didn't really have a fixed idea of what sort of sounds I wanted to use," he says. "Rather, I wanted to incorporate a vision drawn from photography and certain road movies -- especially those of (Jim) Jarmusch and (Wim) Wenders."

Recalling the dilapidated hotels and faded women of such films, Oe's songs are populated with deadbeat characters yearning for a change, love or something beyond their own less-than-ideal existence.

"I had this vision of stars and garbage, or maybe stars over garbage," he says. "The idea is to find what is beautiful or bright or brilliant in the garbage. In Japan, there is more and more garbage -- not just the literal stuff, also too much information. We need to work through it to the future. We might be stuck in garbage or smothered by information, but we should still gaze at the stars."

The effect is, for the most part, poignant and compelling, like walking out of a club at dawn. The beautiful girls suddenly look hard and worn, and the smell of stale cigarettes collides with the morning's freshness.

On a few cuts, such as "Trailer Park Princess" or "Take You Higher," the clear, hard-rock style of vocalist Raj Ramayya (of local group Beautiful Losers) comes perilously close to sounding like a Guns N' Roses or Bon Jovi tune. It is as if Bob Seger's "Hollywood Nights" has been reworked for the techno generation.

For a person who regularly blasts GNR's "Welcome to the Jungle" at full volume, this is not necessarily a bad thing. It's just unexpected in the context of Captain Funk. (Oe even contemplated releasing the album under his own name.)

Still, that isn't the only off-kilter juxtaposition on this album. Many listeners will do a double-take at the bonus track, "Lucid Dreams," which features guest vocals by singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith. Imagine Leonard Cohen guesting on a Funkadelic record and you'll get the idea.

For Oe, however, this album was as much about who he is as about the music he is making. Sexsmith's intensely personal songs are, for Oe, much the same.

"The form is different," he explains, "but Sexsmith reveals himself when he sings. Anytime an artist works alone, the result is directly linked with what they are thinking and feeling, so I thought he would understand where I was coming from."

Producing this sort of revelatory music is always a risk, and some Captain Funk fans may find the adjustment difficult. Those in need of reassurance should head to the annual "Reel Up" events this month. Fear not: The Captain is one funky customer.