Someone on Mastodon was posting about Kino being the biggest soviet rock band so I decided to check them out and I found this song particularly moving.

I can't claim to know the entire context behind the song, but it was written near the end of the Soviet Union and one of the lines is "there is no hope", so I'm choosing to believe this song is about the collapse of the soviet union and it's so sad from that angle. Even the title (given posthumously, the songwriter tragically died before release) "Summer is ending" seems to indicate that it's about the end of something great.

Also jesus what a sick guitar hook.

  • ThomasMuentzner [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Kino is amazing, every song , and because they are all in kyrillic you can not remeber the name of the song the banger you wanted to hear specificly (they are all Bangers) so you have to hear the hole Album again , realising what a great Band this is , as every song is a Banger.

    • Gucci_Minh [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Interestingly enough, the greatest rockstar of China, Cui Jian, is also ethnic Korean, and his family name Cui 崔 is Choi 최 in Korean, and the name Tsoi also corresponds to Choi 최.

      So two of the greatest rockstars in the 2 biggest socialist countries in the world were Koreans with the family name Choi.

    • macabrett
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      That last line is heartbreaking. I read up a ton on the band and Tsoi while listening to them and it's wild how little I knew about any of this in the west. They were enourmous.

  • ssjmarx [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Kino was amazing. If I'm not mistaken their guitarist died the same year the USSR collapsed, and the last album he worked on was released posthumously, and it captures the vibe of that era perfectly.

    • macabrett
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      Yep, this song is from that album. Been listening to their discography a ton. I think the last album might be my favorite.