Male Factors is a Russian ska-punk band with a strong chanson influence. Their lyrics generally deal with criminality and drinking, and they were signed to Hobgoblin Records, a label notoriously owned by a former hacker and black marketer. They sang in Russian, English, Spanish, and German. They use the English name consistently. The band started […]

Zemfira (Земфира) is the stage name of Zemfira Talgatovna Ramazanova (Земфира Талгатовна Рамазанова), a Russian rock musician originally from Ufa, Bashkortostan. Zemfira has sold more than three million records over the course of her career, and continues to be popular in Russia and the former Soviet Republics. Zemfira was influenced from an early age by rock […]

The Night Snipers (Ночные снайперы) is a Russian alternative rock band originally formed in 1993. The band began as an acoustic duo consisting of Diana Arbenina (Диана Сергеевна Арбенина) on guitar and Svetlana Surganova (Светлана Яковлевна Сурганова) on violin. The Night Snipers’ songs are often poetic compositions, many of which feature the work of famous […]

Posle 11 (После 11, After 11) is a Russian folk-pop group, originally hailing from Saratov. The band got their start in 1999 when three Saratov Conservatory students—Yuri Postarnakov (Юрий Постарнаков), Andrei Zverev (Андрей Зверев), and Nikolai Feoktistov (Николай Феоктистов)—participated in a song competition in honor of Aleksandr Pushkin’s 200th birthday. Their song “Little Star” (“Звёздочка”) […]

Smyslovye Gallyutsinatsii (Смысловые галлюцинации) is a Russian alt-rock band from Yekaterinburg whose sound has evolved from straightforward punk rock to, in recent years, more experimental works that sound closer to post-punk or indie. The band’s name translates to “meaningful hallucinations.” Smyslovye Gallyutsinatsii formed in 1989, at the end of the Soviet period, but did not […]

Chaif (Чайф) is a Russian rock band originally from Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg). The name is a play on the Russian words for “tea” (chai, чай) and the slang for “pleasure” (kaif, кайф). Chaif saw national fame in the early 1990s with hits like “Don’t Rush” (“Не спеши”) and “17,” and they are still well known […]

Elizium (Элизиум) is a Russian ska-punk band from Nizhny Novgorod. Elizium plays across a number of genres, including ska, reggae, and metal, from which they have derived their own genre, which they call “space-rock” (“космос-рок”). Their name is taken from an ancient Greek conception of the afterlife. Elizium has  played with a number of well-known […]

Distemper is a Russian ska-punk band known for their combination of straightforward punk rhythms with danceable ska parts. Starting out in 1989 as a hardcore punk band, Distemper transitioned to their current ska sound around 1995. They consistently use a version of their name written in Latin characters. The band was formed in 1989 in […]

Aleksandr Novikov (Александр Новиков) is a Russian singer-songerwriter, performer, and poet who works mostly in the shanson genre, which he calls “urban romance” (городский романс). He is also the art director of Novik Records (Новик-Рекордс; “novik” also means “novice”). He was born and spent his early years on the Kuril Islands, in Sakhalin oblast, near […]