Ever heard of The Venus Fly Trap, no, not that alternative rock band from the Netherlands, but the U.K. version? Well, here’s your chance to check the band’s progression over the years. It actually started around 1987 when Alex Novak fired up the engine. This here “Anthology Of The Food” gives you a good impression of which direction the band is heading musically. From the standard eighties wave to the psychedelic dark wave with rock influences it became later on. In the early days you could give The Venus Fly Trap a place somewhere between The Cure and The Cult (like ‘Cloud 9 Lips’) although the band sported other elements as well.

Through the years they got more psychedelic. Acts like the Smiths and the Pixies sometimes pop in mind when you hear some of the songs (‘Opium War’, ‘A Tribute To Smash Heroes’), but still it never sounds exactly like them. Therefore The Venus Fly Trap proves to have kept their own face all these years. Almost commercial sound songs like ‘Europa’ and (the beautiful) ‘28th March’. It’s only a pity that the booklet doesn’t give any more information about when the songs are recorded and that there’s no background information on the band either…