Send No Flowers, Bitter Taste

Send No Flowers, Bitter Taste - Back in 1996, the vastly underrated British grunge outfit 'Send No Flowers' released the single 'Bitter Taste' through the East West label. The CD came in a simple cardboard digi-pak case with the usual diffuse artwork.

The tracklisting is as follows:

1. Bitter Taste

2. Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey

3. Candidate (Demo Version)

4. Bitter Taste (Die Krupps Version).

The first track on the CD is the A-Side "Bitter Taste" that delivers a bass-heavy, dark grunge track bursting with raw aggression and emotion. The vocals deliver an outstanding depth with well-produced layering working alongside Matt Bradbury's varying style of rough and bitter roars of aggression and his more calm and pure vocals. The song builds towards a climatic peak of energetic rock that will get you gripped by the band's pure talent for song-writing. Very rarely do you find such a proficient rock band who can actually produce tension within their music; here is one such band.

The second track on the CD is a cover of the Beatles track "Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey" taken from the 1968 'The White Album'. The track is a fun-filled escape from the darkness of "Bitter Taste". Matt's raw grunge vocals add a lot to the song. Some truly awesome bass fills contribute to this masterpiece of a cover version. If you're a fan of the band, then you really have to hear this track. The B-Side was only released on this single.

Next we have the demo version of the song 'Candidate' that appeared on the 1996 album 'Juice'. This version of 'Candidate' is, in my opinion, far superior. Admittedly it is only a demo, and lacks the professional recording and production of the album version, but that just seems to add to the track's quality. The demo version is much heavier, with some of Matt's most aggressive vocals and distorted guitars. Some slightly different lyrics and a different song structure and outro, have made this track vastly different to the final album version. All in all, this demo version is a truly impressive offering of bitter, emotional grunge rock. Awesome stuff!

Lastly, we have the 'Die Krupps' remix of the A-Side track. Done with a more electronic sound (aren't they always), it sounds almost like a rocky cyber-goth track. This is an interesting play with the original track, but it's not a patch on the sheer powerful delivery of its master copy. Definitely well worth a listen.

The band were unfortunately dropped by East West a while back and went on to form the little heard of band Shineola where they produced a two-track 7" record for the song 'Strung Out'. This record was limited to 400 copies released, with each coming in a hand-stamped sleeve. Vocalist Matt was then taken seriously ill with something like a ruptured spleen or burst appendix. They haven't been heard of since apart from their drummer Thomas Broman who played in the Ginger formed rock band Silver Ginger 5.

The band are very highly recommended for anyone who is at all interested in bands such as Alice In Chains, Cecil, Stabbing Westward, AP&S, Freak Of Nature, The Almighty or Headswim.