- Red Axes, the Tel Aviv duo Dori Sadovnik and Niv Arzi, tread a fine line between the dramatic and the absurd. Taken as a whole, their music has a faint sense of lavish melodrama, but on closer inspection the props they use are relatively modest—the drums smack like chapped lips, the synths are thin and stringy.
"Todum Todum"'s punchy horns and ashen percussion recall the pomp of a Barnt track, with a regimented march to boot. The synth lines are parched and brittle, as if they've spent too long in the sun, but Sadovnik and Arzi wring out a melody that's oddly noble. Things get a little more absurd on the B-side, which finds Red Axes at their most playful. The all-too-short "Me And Abra In Ruanda" swaggers in with a woodblock-beaten rhythm and a procession of chintzy trumpets that could raise a smile from a trout, while "Pil Sagol" lets loose with a chaotically-played marimba and a whistling synth melody that bores straight into your skull.
TracklistA1 Todum Todum
B1 Ma & Abra In Ruanda
B2 Pil Sagol