We chose to recall ten Russian electronic bands that are popular in western countries. It can be difficult for them to see a demand in their own market, but the attention they receive there leads to more sales instead.

Kedr Livanskiy

Kedrina, a young girl from Moscow Maryin, has been writing electronics for several years and has her own pseudonym. During this time, she managed to become a resident of the American label 2MR and appeared on the pages of Western publications such as Vice and Pitchfork. In Russia, listeners may hear Yana on the radio at maximum in the “Research Institute” or in “16 tons,” but outside of our country Kedr Livanskiy is more popular – for example, Yana is listed at Barcelona’s prestigious festival Primavera S.

Interchain

The electronic duet of Evgeny Gorbunov and Andrey Lee performs wild techno music, with their techno tunes screaming out slogans. Recently, the band released their new album called “Plenum.” Madrid-based Hivern Discs noticed the recording and offered to produce a vinyl edition of the album. Owned by the label, John Talabot, Barcelona musician/producer and host of the dance floor at the Primavera Festival. It’s possible that Andrei & Zhenya will fly to Spain after Yana keeps postponing their dates.

Love cult

Russia’s Petrozavodsk Duo took a six-month trip to China and did a performance in Berlin last year. Their time abroad expanded their repertoire and experience tremendously, and provided them with opportunities to perform internationally at the CTM festival. The Full of Nothing label continues to grow in size, and is now offering their music to the UK distributors. With Lovozero and Moa Pillar, get ready for your minds to be blown.

“Tpsb”

One of the main electronic music discoveries of this year is a mysterious project called “tpsb”, which released a disc on the British label Blackest Ever Black named “Sekundenschlaf” (free translation – “Microsleep”). The Ukrainian-Russian ambient techno and jungle release was recorded near Lake Ladoga, but it has a lot of nostalgia for pre-Communist Russia (Mikhail Gorbachev’s speech is included towards the end of the record) being too carried away by Eastern European aesthetics.

WWWINGS

An anonymous project that once lived in Kamchatka, Siberia, and Ukraine: three WWWINGS members lived there. The interview topics were diverse, including everything from genre to territory, but the group members seemed more interested in getting to know each other as people. Still, their interest in communication was on Telegram and VKontakte: The members of the collectives took part in the SoundCloud experimental scene which moved entirely online. At the start of 2018, WWWINGS announced their disbandment.

DRAAG

Nikita Stepanov, a 21-year-old musician from St. Petersburg, tried to record techno music before going to school. His youth was quickly rewarded with a full schedule of DJing, touring, and remixing. He’s even got tracks in Resident Advisor & top techno DJs like Kobosil and Truss right now. Having played at Herrnsauna, Nikita became a guest of honor in the main techno mecca, where only the problem with a work visa interferes with performing.

Gesloten Cirkel

There are many rumors about the personality of electronics engineer Gesloten Cirkel. According to some of them, the name of the techno star is Sasha and he was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. In any case, it is already difficult to call him a Russian artist: he became popular when he left the country, signed by a foreign label I-F. He performs very rarely & will never return to his homeland.

PTU

The duo from Kazan PTU released their album from the Trip label, which is founded by Nina Kravitz. Now Kamil and Alina play on sweeping European openair with Nikita, Nina, themselves, as well as their Icelandic counterpart Bjarki. There are still frequent PTUs in Moscow, even though the rave has given them a new outlet.

InLensk

Gennady Volgarev is a Russian musician and a native of the Siberian village of Lensk. In 2015, his debut disc was released on a well-known music label, Nicholas Jaar. In the same year his track “Pro2” got picked up and included in a list of the best experimental tracks of the year by Apple Music – there he’s on par with some big names like Arca, Actress and Jlin. Unfortunately, the project stalled but the nervous rhythms of a new 2018 Obratno record release sounds great.

IC3PEAK

When it comes to controlling your reputation and brand, it might be better in some circumstances not to let the Western media influence decisions. IC3PEAK was able to talk about the diversity of their listeners in an interview with The Village. They also mentioned that there was a lot of concentration of their listeners in Europe and Latin America. A Moscow-based audiovisual duo that utilizes low-quality bass and mystical work has been touring through Latin America and the USA recently. They have sold soundtrack rights for their videos to Netflix productions, but their performance scenes in Russia are still only limited to events like the Pain & Dreams festival. However, since last year the group has been singing very confidently in Russian – it is enough to listen to the track “Sad ***”.

OBGON

A project by Andrey Lee. He is best known for being the founder of the world-renowned duo, Interchain. The reformed duo used to be Stoned Boys but are now working in the field of techno sound. This is just a different side of their creativity. You can find Obgon’s EDM sound all over the place these days, with fans of the genre enjoying everything from hyper-active club hookups to radio bangers with a little bit of everything thrown in.

SV KHUTOR

Sergey Khutornenko is an electronic musician who’s music focuses on the themes of science, technology, and modernism. He lives in Sterlitamak and has a factory job. In between, his passion is music and he loves to record it. Khutornenko writes quiet and dreamy electronics, which is definitely close to the “dream-pop” tag. His tracks have also included cooperation with Christmas Toys and even a cover of Dmitry Malikov’s song.

SLAVA

Slava Balasanov is a musician, digital artist and was born in Russia. He immigrated to America at the age of 12 with his parents. He is considered the husband of their significant other and was introduced by a music publication as Brooklyn-based producer. However, in the video for his track “Werk”, he wears a sweatshirt that has Russia engraved into it. Slava visits Moscow regularly to teach programming at a local coding school. In the studio, he records and releases mixes. First, he played Chicago house, but then he got too absorbed in jook and began to play bass.

LOKIBOI

Vladimir Strabykin is using the name Lokiboi to hide from everyone he knows. He became an emigrant and began living in London for many years. Urban British electronics are music with a distinct urban sound. It’s driven by percussive keyboards, synthesizers, and drumbeats. Navigating the different cultures in Britain is quite a difficult task. Especially when they’re represented in only one radio station. There’s no denying that both the basu and ghetto house have a place, but what would be best? That will always be on the listeners discretion. Lokiboi is busy in Moscow and has been over the last few months. You may be interested to know that he recently released a fresh new album on the Russian Label Capital Bass and collaborated with local rappers, DJs, and musicians.