Red Wave

RED WAVE
 
 
Red Wave: 4 Underground Bands from the Soviet Union  was a split double album released in 1986 and featuring Russian rock bands Aquarium, Kino, Alisa, and Strannye Igry (Strange Games), all from Leningrad.  It was the first release of Russian rock music into the United States.  Three of the four bands (Aquarium, Kino and Alisa) on this album have later become icons of the Russian rock movement and are still widely known and followed in Russia.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 

It didn’t stay that way though; harder rocking Russian rock bands began releasing albums more openly by the 1980’s, and some were available in this country as well.  The above double-LP album, Red Wave (1986) featured an album side each of music from four hard rock bands from Leningrad:  Akvarium (“Aquarium”), Strannye Igry (“Strange Games”), Alisa, and Kino (“Cinema”).  At one of the three World’s Fairs that we went to in the 1980's – probably the Expo 86 in Vancouver, B.C. – the pavilion for the Soviet Union had a section where some of this rock music could be heard. 

 

With the success of this album, Russian rock bands were able to tour in other countries, and Western rock bands began playing concerts in Russia as well.  As I have noted in an earlier post, Uriah Heep was the first, in 1987, followed by the German band Scorpions in 1988. 

 

(April 2015/1)

 

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