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Israel's hottest pop band aims at the international market.
In a video clip-dominated rock world where a band's looks count for as much, if not more, than its music, the four somewhat ordinary and unassuming-looking members of Ethnix hardly fit the bill. But when they took the stage recently at a Jerusalem dance hall, their music - an up-tempo mix of Western new-wave dance rhythms and traditional Middle Eastern melodies - had the audience on its feet and dancing.
Ethnix, voted local band of the year in an Army Radio poll of pop music fans, is undoubtably the country's hottest rock group. After conquering the local market with two highly successful albums, the Tel Aviv-based quartet has just recorded two songs in English in an attempt to crack the international scene. No Israeli rock star has done this, with the exception of singer Ofra Haza, whose single "Imni alu" achieved popular success in the United States.
Tamir Kalisky, the band's keyboard player, knows it won't be easy. "It's very hard for a group from Israel to make it in English- speaking countries," he says. "They don't really like the Israeli sound, the Arabic scales and everything - it's a...