Red Axes

Red Axes comprise an eclectic Israeli dance duo whose output spans dubby left-field house workouts and darker numbers shaped by industrial and new-wave impulses. Their productions typically fuse dusty, twangy electric-guitar figures with simmering, disco-derived drum-machine grooves while incorporating the pair’s own shadowy vocals. The duo exhibit a macabre wit—exemplified by a bootleg disco reworking of Nick Cave’s “Red Right Hand”—yet their material generally conveys a relaxed, upbeat spirit rather than outright menace. Long-players such as The Beach Goths (2017) and Red Axes (2020) showcase their idiosyncratic dance-rock approach, while 2023’s The Phantasy Collection (Part 1) gathers highlights from their numerous club EPs; the same year’s studio album One More City, issued by Fabric, fuses post-punk, rockabilly, disco, and glam, with appearances by Clams of Warmduscher and Cole Alexander of Black Lips.

Former members of the post-punk outfit Red Cotton, Dori Sadovnik and Niv Arzi inaugurated the Break It! party series in Tel Aviv before issuing the first Red Axes EPs in 2010. Their 2012 digital EP Tour de Chile surfaced on the French imprint I’m a Cliché, followed later that year by the Correspondant single “Caminho de Dreyfus,” which featured veteran Brazilian singer Abrão. The duo’s debut album, Ballad of the Ice, arrived on I’m a Cliché in 2014; the vocal- and guitar-centric set included further contributions from Abrão alongside a rendition of Bauhaus’s “Bela Lugosi’s Dead.” Subsequent singles and EPs appeared on an array of dance imprints, among them Crosstown Rebels, Hivern Discs, and Permanent Vacation. In 2016 Dark Entries released an EP comprising the duo’s remixes of material by Greek electronic pioneer Lena Platonos.

Red Axes’ second album, The Beach Goths, emerged on their own Garzen Records in 2017 and was soon followed by the Kalacol EP on Life and Death and Nyx Tape on Dark Entries. They inaugurated the Trips series on !K7 with In Africa in 2018, adding In Vietnam and In India in the ensuing years, and simultaneously began issuing material on Erol Alkan’s Phantasy Sound, beginning with Sipoor. The Voom EP appeared on Dark Entries in late 2019, and the label issued the duo’s third full-length, Red Axes, in 2020. The Electric Bee came out via Shall Not Fade in 2022, while The Phantasy Collection (Part 1) assembled their Phantasy Sound EPs the following year.