Kingston upon Thames-based alt-rock band Danny Valentine and the Meditations are new to our blog through their edgy, avant-garde new album, Parapraxis.

By Graeme Smith

Opening with the bold brass and visceral storytelling of Homine Domine, Parapraxis is the kind of album that grabs you by the delicates from the off. Genre-wise, it refuses to be classified, merging rock with jazz, blues and something more indefinable. I was immediately hooked.

Danny Valentine and the Meditations suggest the album’s twelve tracks reveal hidden meanings and truths and I can believe it, though I think it’ll take multiple listens to unpick them. The first listen presents you with striking, mingling scenes, be it a night on the tiles in Halo of Ink or an ark of strange creatures in Numb.

All the while the album stays varied, interesting and, ultimately, rousing. Are U Degenerated? gives us a twisted party anthem while The Hydes Machine slows things down during a fizzling moment. It heralds a gentler and more contemplative series of tracks that includes In the Night, a Dancer, End of Days and My Kingdom, though things take an unexpected disco turn at the end of the End of Days and My Kingdom builds to a powerful finish. Thunder ends the album with a lingering epic that unfolds over nearly eleven minutes.

Danny Valentine and the Meditations are DHR Gibbs, Dan Hydes, Philip Dawson, Lisa Moore, Jimmy Bracher, Dan Darriba Esq, Andre Canniere, and Kirsten Neil.

Parapraxis is out now, available on extremely limited edition gold vinyl. You can give it a listen below.