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Bettie Serveert: Lamprey (Matador/Atlantic)

Eric Weisbard, Spin, February 1995

A CERTAIN ubiquitous film director has commented that surf music isn't about surfing, it's just spaghetti western soundtracks sped up. Nice one, Quentin, but why stop there? Listen to 'Keep Sake', in which the Dutch band Bettie Serveert starts up its new album with 75 seconds of drifting guitar, like the overture to a Sam Shepard play, like Neil Young, like Bon Jovi, too. Decontextualized atmospherics, that's the spirit of the whole damn age.

Total word count of piece: 777

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