by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

Call them colourful, call them crazy if you want, but don't call London, England's Oojami a Turkish-trad-meets-techno act. "We don't even call ourselves a fusion band," says Necmi Cavli, a teacher turned music producer who a half-decade ago founded both Oojami and London's Hubble Bubble Club nights of electronic ethnic fusion music. "We call ourselves a global diffusion band, mixing a lot of different elements - Arabic, Asian, African, even some Irish tunes - and trying to make the sound global.

"Because I'm Turkish, I'm familiar with Turkish songs and use some Turkish melodic elements, but it's not our only identification. Whatever the influence, we try to catch an artistic identity that's special to Oojami, to make things in our own way - otherwise we become a formula band. I keep away from house and techno, mainly because it's outdated, this four-to-the-floor beat, and also, this sort of beat limits your song structure. It's really easy to put anything on top of it, but it doesn't give you enough space and challenge to write a real song that people will remember."

One thing people will remember about Oojami is the dancing, and not just French fox Audrey Tautou grinding to "Fantasy," off Oojami's debut Bellydancing Breakbeats, in the film Dirty Pretty Things. Live, Oojami feature both baladi (bellydancing) and the whirling dance of the Sufi mystics (hence album two's title, Urban Dervish). There's a clash there - baladi is sensual, about the body, while the dance of the Sufi is about transcendence, about leaving the body. "Particularly in our culture, bellydancing is only done in clubs, a men-only, seedy kind of scene, so it's not respected so much. We try to break away from that and show that it's an artform and not just entertainment. But sometimes people are offended that we have bellydancing as well as Sufi dancing - it was very difficult to find an open-minded Sufi dancer to work with us.

"But I don't see that much difference. Of course, in terms of philosophy, the Sufi dancing is a ritual, but to me, every dance is a ritual. The dance will never be natural and convincing unless you lose yourself."

At le Swimming on Saturday, June 4, 10 p.m., $15

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