Russian techno

Russian techno has emerged late after the fall of the Iron Curtain, with the inflow of modern synthesizers and sophisticated sound mixing equipment - an area where USSR was trailing significantly behind the West. Import of the new hardware defined the transition from VIAs - the vocal-instrumental-ensembles - Soviet-era bands with specific sound defined by cheap electronics. These had been in effect replaced with more Western-sounding groups slowly gaining momentum circa 1990s.

The target audience of the new techno bands was the urban population of Russia, comprising most of the country population by 1991, when USSR was dissolved. However, due to then-blossoming period of "wild criminal capitalism", promotion and marketing of new venues was defined not by popularity or public demand, but rather through stand-alone projects funded and marketed by single individuals, capable of capital investments. These investors were often driven by their own personal tastes and ideas (typical example - Ivan Shapovalov, creator of t.A.T.u.), while the empty techno-music market was readily bracing virtually any new domestic techno singer.

All this defined the phenomena of Russian techno scene - with its significant domination by female singers and girl-bands, performing sophisticated techno narrowly bordering trance and dance music. Thus, Russian techno relied a lot on vocals, and has distinct romantic tones, which makes is quite different from male-dominated German techno, which may sound more metallic with less reliance on vocals. One of the few traditional Western-style techno bands was Technologia, an attempt of Russian localization of Depeche Mode.

Since the beginning of 21st century, the aforementioned situation started changing due to the swift economic growth in Russia, fuelled by growing oil prices, as well as the development of the music business infrastructure. Oddly enough, that also set the former techno sector to a level of decline, with a drift towards MTV-sation of Russian pop. This was mainly characterized by lack of significant new names in the techno stream.

Notable Russian techno/trance performers

* Blestyashchie - notably, the first incarnation, lead by Olga Orlova between 1997-2000
** Prosto Mechty - 1998 ("Just Dreams")
** Tam, Tolko Tam - 1997 ("There, only there")
* Lika MC
** Rap - 1992
** More Than Love - 1996
* PPK (Russian: ППК)
* Tatiana Bulanova - her techno remixes of the original ballads
* t.A.T.u. - mainly their debut album, "200 Po Vstrechnoy"
* VIA Gra
*

External links

* [http://www.russmus.net/music.html Russian Music on the Net: Info about Russian pop/techno bands with lyrics and English translations]