IvanP
Joined: Feb 27, 2006
Posts: 10331
southern Michigan
Posted on Apr 17 2014 12:29 PM
I've been really getting into the music of the great Finnish guitarist Sami Paananen, who has led two instro bands: the Lunatics and El Supernaut. The Lunatics released two studio albums (Beware in 2001 and Tour De Monde in 2004) and one live mini-album (No Sleep 'till Twang in 1999), while El Supernaut have two out so far (Viva! in 2011 and Plays Half Dead in 2013). Sami is an absolutely stunning guitarist, playing with huge energy, incredible tone, astounding chops and lots and lots of feel and soul. I am completely blown away by him, I must say! He plays a Strat into a Vox AC-30 with some echo, but doesn't sound anything like Hank Marvin - in fact, even though he doesn't use reverb, he plays a lot like a surf guitarist, with a great deal of aggression, quite a bit of double-picking, etc. Anyway, just thought I'd post some videos of this remarkable musician, since I suspect most SG101-ers aren't very familiar with either of his great bands. Enjoy!
IvanP
Joined: Feb 27, 2006
Posts: 10331
southern Michigan
Posted on Jan 11 2017 04:09 PM
I've had the four CDs by the Lunatics and El Supernaut on repeat for the past week. Man, these are MONSTER CDs! Why is there not more talk about either of these bands???? I'm completely mystified! Am I really the only one that is completely blown away by these bands?? Can't possibly be.... As far as I'm concerned, they are in the top five surf bands in the world today.
If you use Spotify, the entire "Viva!" album by El Supernaut from 2011 is available.
Reverbenator
Joined: Jul 26, 2015
Posts: 260
San Diego, Ca
Posted on Jan 12 2017 08:34 PM
Thanks for posting that, Ivan.
The Finns have their own genre (sub-genre?) Of Instro/Surf called 'Rautalanka'. Rautalanka literally means 'iron wire', which refers to the strings of the electric guitar.
Rautalanka dates back to the early 60s, and is characterized by clean (i.e. 'Twangy') guitars, with slap back/tape delay used in place of reverb.
If you want to know more, just look it up on Wikipedia. Their write up will tell you everything you want to know, and then some.
IvanP
Joined: Feb 27, 2006
Posts: 10331
southern Michigan
Posted on Jan 12 2017 09:10 PM
Hey Clark! I know quite a bit about rautalanka, have been listening to it for about 20 years. It's great stuff! My old surf band the Space Cossacks even covered the Blazers' "Metsakukkia" and we still always play it when we reunite. (See below.) But neither El Supernaut nor the Lunatics play rautalanka, their music is way too fast and energetic and 'up'! But clearly they were influenced by it. I see both of those bands led by Sami drawing influences from many places (including Laika & the Cosmonauts whose live energy and speed seem like a natural predecessor for Sami's bands) to create a pretty unique, personal sound. One which I just love! Was listening to it all again today!
Reverbenator
Joined: Jul 26, 2015
Posts: 260
San Diego, Ca
Posted on Jan 12 2017 10:10 PM
My Mother was Finnish, so this is something near and dear to my heart. If she had been aware of this genre, she might well have listened to it.
(Even though she was of the Robert Goulet generation.)
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