It means "Barbed Wire", I think in Swedish. No reverb though.
Lots of Echo like the Shadows. The Spotnicks are probably the best
known, but the best "IMHO" are the Mustangs from Finland.
There is a first wave of Rautalanka with mucho bands. Even more today.
Twangsville Records in Finland and Rarity Records in Holland have the
most bands.

Trode

Dave, rautalanka is how the Finnish people referred to guitar instrumental music. (Sort of like Eleki in Japan.) It means 'barbed wire', and the reason for that term is that some people thought an electric guitar sounded like it was strung with barbed wire! So, very metallic and unpleasant. Of course, for those that like it, it became a term of pride.

The rautalanka label only officially applies to Finnish sixties instro bands. The Spotnicks are Swedish, so they wouldn't qualify. However, interestingly enough, it was the Spotnicks that started the whole rautalanka scene, as they released a single in Finland under a different name (the Feenades - "Theme From Leningrad/"Ajomies") which became a big hit and kickstarted other bands. Probably the biggest rautalanka bands were the Strangers and the Sounds. The Sounds did two songs that define rautalanka: "Mandschurian Beat" and "Emma". The Strangers' "Kolme Kitaraa" is another big one. Of the more current bands, the Quiets and the Mustangs (both from Finland and both really amazing) often show rautalanka influences, though they often tend to more straight Euro-instro, especially in the Shadows style.

I used to have many convesations with Pekka of the Hypnomen about rautalanka and Finland in general. It is important to understand the Finnish mentality to understand rautalanka. The Finns are very melancholy people, and they in fact think of that as a positive attribute. Sometimes however they go too far, and I believe they have one of the highest (if not thee) suicide rates in the world (having barely any daylight for weeks at a time probably doesn't help, either). All this is reflected in rautalanka music which is extremely melancholy and rarely if ever rocks. The main influences are the Shadows, of course, and the Spotnicks, but the sound of rautalanka is all its own. (I believe I have a rather lengthy article somwhere on rautalanka, translated for me by Pekka of the Hypnomen. I can try to find it, if you want.)

Finally, I should mention that the Space Cossacks recorded one rautalanka song. It was called "Metsakukkia", originally done by the Blazers, and it was released on our split EP with the Hypnomen. I think it's also on our recent best-of.

Ivan

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
The Madeira Official Website
The Madeira on Facebook
The Blair-Pongracic Band on Facebook
The Space Cossacks on Facebook
The Madeira Channel on YouTube

Brian
I really like that Strangers video that was mentioned (again). And the Space Cossacks version of Metsakukkia is very cool too. Are there any good "primer" type CD's that I could pick up? Thanks.

Brian, I really don't know. I have three CDs, but it's likely they've been out of print for a long time. I have a best-of collection of the Sounds, and two compilations: "Rautalanka-Klassikot" and "Rautalanka-Klassikot 2". The comps give you a great feel for what rautalanka is and have all the key tracks. All three CDs were on F Records (or Fazer Records?), a Warner Music Finland subsidiary. It has a date of '98 on all three.

I forgot to mention one other thing: there was a special connection between rautalanka and eleki, believe it or not! Eleki bands covered rautalanka tracks on more than a few occasions. I believe Mandschurian Beat and Emma were both covered. Finnish people are descendants of the huns (yes, as in Atilla), as are Hungarians, and huns of course came from Asia. So, besides some blood connections, there's also a connection with the melancholy attitude. The Japanese are also way up there as far as suicide rates go....

Ivan

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
The Madeira Official Website
The Madeira on Facebook
The Blair-Pongracic Band on Facebook
The Space Cossacks on Facebook
The Madeira Channel on YouTube

Trode
Ivan would know this for sure but I believe only the West Coast of the USA and Australia developed into the "Surf Style" in the early/mid sixties

Also the US midwest produced great surf bands during the 1st wave.

T H E ✠ S U R F I T E S

CaptainSpringfield
I'm pretty sure Euro-instro albums were released in Japan more frequently than Western ones (or at least non-Ventures ones) during the eleki craze, which might account for that.

-Warren

Sure, it’s also cheaper to buy Les Fantomes EPs from Hong-Kong than from France, because todays chinese people don’t know what to make of them and the french make prices like they don’t want to sell at all.

KK

The Exotic Guitar of Kahuna Kawentzmann

You can get the boy out of the Keynes era, but you can’t get the Keynes era out of the boy.

Since no-one actually answered the original question here goes

literally 'rautalanka' means 'iron wire' not barbed wire as mentioned by some
and it comes from the metal strings on electric guitar

barbed wire in finnish would be 'Piikkilanka'

Does anybody know where to buy either original or newer Rautalanka in the U.S.? I have one comp. from bands like The Savages, The Strangers, The Sounds, The Avengers, The Esquires, The Steelers, The Blazers, etc. I also have a Quiets album. However, I'd like to get much more of this.

Ryan
The Secret Samurai Website
The Secret Samurai on Facebook

Cool. Thanks Bob! I'll check it out.

Ryan
The Secret Samurai Website
The Secret Samurai on Facebook