French band Watcha Clan’s latest release, Diaspora Remixed is a mix of cultures, beats, languages, and music styles. Embracing a wide range of sounds from as far afield as Morocco, Eastern Europe, India, and the Caribbean, the album is a re-envisioning of their award-winning 2008 album Diaspora Hi Fi: A Mediterranean Caravan. The Marseilles-based trio –made up of vocalist Sista K, keyboardist Clement, and bassist Matt –are currently on tour in Europe and will be returning for a second North American run this month and through the fall. Diaspora Remixed is, for those unfamiliar with Watcha Clan’s sounds, a great introduction to the band, and to the global sounds they embrace. The entire album is made up of various versions of tunes, remixed by a tour de force of global DJs, who bring their own cultural sounds and flavours to an already rich mélange of sonic sounds and grooves.

And yet that doesn’t imply the sounds Watcha Clan make are unfocused or watered-down. In fact, quite the opposite is demonstrated here. The sounds the band embraces aren’t so much local as they are trans-global, with a kicking under-beat that calls on listeners to move their feet. It seems only suitable then, that the album’s opener, “Lei Lei Ha,” is remixed by well-known British global dubmasters Transglobal Underground. Best-known internationally for their work with sultry singer (and dancer) Natacha Atlas, the Underground bring a gently hypnotic quality to the tune, incorporating Indian bhangra sounds with Eastern rhythms, and throwing in chants along with French rap. A fuzzy guitar recalling U2’s funk-nasty “Discotheque” era cuts the tune in half, grinding through a myriad of beats and breaks and gnawa-influenced calls, bringing the divine to the dance floor and escalating sonic intensity as it moves towards a moody conclusion.

“Balkan Qoulou” the second tune, opens with a funky baritone call before a flute is added, then dance beats and the yelps of vocalist Sista K. Remixed by Balkan DJ Shazalakazoo, the tune is bouncy and fresh, with a foot in the new world and another in the old. A brass line is looped around the verses, with K’s voice echoing and floating through the eclectic atmosphere created by the Balkan beatmaster. The original, a bass-heavy tune integrating Sista’s own mixed background (Lithuanian and Sephardic), is nicely referenced here, with the catchy chorus accentuated by a clash of cymbals and staccato horns. It’s dub-meets-the Balkans, as Shazalakazoo and Watcha Clan take the roots of gypsy brass into the 21st century. And yet, for all its clever and creative mixing, the song begs for deeper instrumentation and a greater use of that loud, brash brass; as with many dance-world tunes, the beats have a tendency to grow redundant and muddy the initial, vivacious beauty of the original.

By contrast, the third track is another remix of “Balkan Qoulou” by Vienna-based DJ Dunkelbunt featuring Cloud Tissa & MC Killo Killo, and unlike its predecessor, makes better use of traditional instruments, injecting the song with a shot of Jamaican soul along the way. The sound of Killo performing Caribbean-flavoured raps over an Eastern European harmonic structure is a unique, refreshing listening experience, and frankly, more sonically interesting than the Shazalakazoo mix. (For Torontonians: the sound is akin to Caribana being jammed in with the Chin Picnic.) At nearly a minute longer than the Shazalakazoo remix, the tune nicely explores the various instrumental possibilities inherent within the tune’s melodic/harmonic structure. An accordion features prominently here (with a bouncy bass underneath), as does a sweet gypsy-style violin, winding its way through the intro and framing rapped verses. There’s even a rap in Serbian. Talk about international sounds. To quote Steppenwolf, it takes the world on a sonic-love embrace.

And that’s the beauty of Diaspora Remixed. It’s an album unafraid to make what might be far-reaching connections –not just between sounds, but in a wider sense, between cultures. “Goumari,” a deeply North African-sounding track, is remixed by New York City-based DJs EarthRise SoundSystem, and its sparse, hypnotic beat stands in stark contrast to the sixth track, the same, but remixed by Shazalakazoo. With a fast beat and a bluesy guitar sound, it recalls the faster songs by the Malian rock blues band Tinariwen. It’s interesting to hear the same deep Malian-blues sound layered on top of a heavy house beat and sonic sequencers –the effect is dizzying, yes, but also exhilarating. The contrast with instruments, voices and rhythms end up making for some awesome dance music of the highest order. This is a track that would be equally at home in any hip urban nightclub as it would at the annual Festival in the Desert.

The band travel sonically to Greece for the album’s final track, “Les courbes de ton corps” (“The bends of your body”) remixed by Athenian DJ Stratman. With its swirl of guitars, keyboards, heavy beats and growling vocals that clearly recall Algerian-French singer Rachid Taha’s “Nah'seb (I Count)” (from 2005’s Tekitoi?) the tune is equal parts sensuous and aggressive, nicely fusing uninhibited sounds of the Mediterranean and North Africa with the country’s more northern, Eastern European cousins. It’s all filtered through a contemporary, dance floor ethos, making for an interesting sonic experience that is cohesive for its ambitions toward a kind of trans-global aural unity.

Unity might be just the thing Watcha Clan is aiming for. Diaspora Remixed seems to have an M.O. of uniting cultures not just through older musical instrumentation and experimentation, but through the fierce and unapologetic use of technology. It’s stimulating to hear how global DJs make use of their equipment and fuse it with Watcha’s already-stewy style. The Parisian DJ Click captures the swirling North African sensuality in another remix of “Goumari” while injecting laid-back Caribbean rhythms and a chattery background, perhaps reflecting his own city’s unique cultural mix. Hamburg-based Barrio Populaire’s remix of “Limu” has a breezy, slinky feel, with well-ordered beats and sounds; it’s the sort of thing you want to sip fancy cocktails to. By contrast, Balkan mixmaster Shazalakazoo reflects the uptempo, frantic pace of a Belgrade that seems fiercely determined to escape its worn-torn past; his work is more suited to emptying bottles of slivovic and korte palinka.

This variance of sound is also reflected lyrically. While Diaspora Remixed isn’t chalk full of lyrics, its vocal sounds are spread around carefully and conscientiously by every DJ. Sista K’s words can come as bullets, sighs, or streams, but unless you speak fluent French, Arabic, Yiddish or Spanish, you probably won’t understand a word. No matter. The few English lyrics (as in “Limu”) on the album are dreamy and Zen-like –pondering unity, it would seem, but not quite able to reach it; Sista K and her troupe trust the music to express what the mess of words can’t. And yes, this is dance music, but not the heaving, boom-boom-boom of a Saturday night club. It’s more subtle, thoughtful, and yes, even delicate; Watcha Clan and their team of fearless DJs have crafted dance music of the highest order with Diaspora Remixed –it’s fierce, intelligent, and challenging. It makes you think, move, and groove, all at once. If ever there was a symbol of music in 2009, Diaspora Remixed is it.

Track Listing:

1. Lei Lei Ha (TransGlobal Underground remix)
2. Balkan Qoulou (Shazalakazoo remix)
3. Balkan Qoulou (Dunkelbunt remix feat Cloud Tissa & MC Killo Killo)
4. Tchiribim (Balkan Xpress Soundsistema remix)
5. Goumari (EarthRise SoundSystem remix)
6. Goumari (Shazalakazoo remix)
7. Diaspora Dub (Undergang remix)
8. Limu (Mars Exist remix)
9. Goumari (Dj Click remix)
10. Eli (Gaetano Fabri remix)
11. Eli (Barrio Populaire remix feat Fil-a-fil)
12. Goumari (Spark remix)
13. Les courbes de ton corps (Stratman remix)