Tag: Dennis Fuller

Donzii Playfully Deconstructs a Song About Lust and the Yearning For Real Connection in the Video For No Wave Post-punk Funk Single “Penetrate”

Donzii, photo from Bandcamp

Jenna Balfe and Dennis Fuller of Donzii seem smeared in green makeup and in in green wigs in the video for the group’s new single, the title track to its new EP (which landed on November 10, 2023). The duo frolic about a stage and at one point what looks like a giant phallus of the kind used in Japanese fertility festivals is wheeled into view and used as a cartoonishly large pole to dance around and then later we see experiments of various kinds performed on the object tipped over on its side. It fits a song that seems to be about near insatiable desire but delivered by Balfe in a way that seems disinterested and playful at once. In typical Donzii fashion the No Wave funk bass lines and tropical disco rhythms amid ghostly synths and guitar work give the song a quality that is a deconstruction of expectations and building toward something more subversive. It’s frankly a welcome new direction for one of the most original bands in the larger world of modern post-punk where thin guitar tones and bedroom production rules the underground. Donzii, as usual, gives us more in the music and in its presentation thereof with the video directed by Trulee Hall. Watch that video on YouTube and follow Miami’s post-punk luminaries Donzii at the links below.

Donzii on Facebook

Donzii on Instagram

jennabalfe.com

Donzii’s “Rightway Highway” is an No Wave Funk Post-Punk Anthem for Non-Conformists Everywhere

Donzii, photo courtesy the artists

Donzii is a bit of a favorite among connoisseurs of underground post-punk and its new single “Rightway Highway” with its retro style VHS glitched music video by Domingo Castillo is fine example of where the band is going with its forthcoming full-length debut (out on Grey Market Records later this year). Danny Heinze’s bent and clipped guitar lines dub style, Dennis Fuller’s minimal yet intricate and driving bass lines and of course Jenna Balfe’s nearly deadpan but theatrical and expressive vocals running through a backdrop of what looks like an amusement park in south Florida from which the trio hails. Fans of Bush Tetras will appreciate the way Donzii handles its rhythm scheme and mutant melodies as well as the poetry of the lyrics discussing a desire to escape from a wack situation where a person who wants to give back and not just take doesn’t fit in as elaborated upon and summed up with the line “if you can’t find the right way save it for another day, I’m just a runaway looking for the freeway.” It’s string of words that captures the sense that maybe until you have your plan for making your exit you can hold in your heart the sense that you are fine with being a weirdo in a place that isn’t so welcoming of them and your opportunity will come. Maybe that isn’t the actual sense of the song but music like Donzii’s resonates with that of bands like Suburban Lawns, Lithics and Ganser because it isn’t trying to fit into the confines of a narrow style and that in itself suggests it’s music for non-conformists in general with words giving comfort to their kind wherever the songs are heard. Watch the video for “Rightway Highway” on YouTube and follow Donzii at the links below.

Donzii on Facebook

Donzii on Instagram