As a professional Russianist and music lover I could recommend lots of
bands, but none are more important than Kino and their front man Victor
Tsoi. He is still widely regarded as the father of Russian popular music,
especially with regard to "alternative" youth genres. You will find that a
great deal of Russian popular music, even underground music, is quite
derrivative. However, Kino and Tsoi are true originals. Even if they were
inspired by western popular genres, they brought something distinctly
genuine, sincere, and new to the music scene. This might explain why they
were among the first "rock" bands to play publicly. They were so successful,
that the authorities sort of had to allow it. Read more about him and Kino
here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Tsoi

Another band I really enjoy is Television (Televizor). They had a quirky and
original almost no wave edge on their album Шествие рыб [Shestvie ryb]
(1985) that I find really endearing. After that, however, they really went
down hill fast. If they have albums pre 1985, they would probably be worth
seeking out. I'll check through my collections soon to see if I know of
anything else worth recommending to someone to general audiences (ie someone
not blinded by years of Russian studies)

There is also a compilation called Russian 80s Synth Wave that you should
listen to. The bands are of varying value, but some are pretty impressive.
It may just be a user created compilation though, as I have only seen it on
Soulseek.

Best,

Adam Kolkman
University of Michigan
Slavic Dept

On Sun, Jan 30, 2011 at 10:17 PM, Roger Kulp <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I have a couple of questions,that Mike Biel would probably be best suited
> to answer.
>
> I assume most of you are familiar with the Russian/Soviet rock band,DDT,one
> of the great band names of all time.I just bought an original vinyl copy
> online of their record "Thaw", Cyrillic title Оттепель .I assume this is a
> late Melodiya pressing,as it dates from 1990.I had been after any of their
> original vinyl for years.I have bought a lot of very rare,and
> unusual,classical vinyl from Russian sellers on eBay,over the last 10-11
> years or so,but I had never been able to find any records,by DDT,or any
> Russian or Soviet rock.I have only now just looked at the Wikipedia entry on
> them
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT_%28band%29
>
> ,and I see they have quite a discography.
>
> I would be very curious about other Soviet or Russian rock bands,especially
> from the 80s and 90s.Are there many others that recorded,say in the early
> 90s,after the fall of The Soviet  Union,who are worth knowing about?The only
> other one I know about,is the lame metal band "Black Coffee".Are there any
> good books or web sites about this music?
>
> I know a little more about Russian record labels than I did when I posted
> my questions here in 2007.Pages like this
> http://www.pinkfloydarchives.com/DRusLPPF.htm#Antrop
>
> were a big help.
>
> This got me wondering,when Antrop,which they do link to Melodiya,went out
> of business,as this site implies.
>
> AnTrop was named after the legendary Russian underground producer and
> sound engineer, Andrey Tropillo, who in 1990, on the wave of
> "perestroika," became the head of the St. Petersburg branch of Melodia.
>  Since there was much turmoil in Russia at the time, he made the St.
> Petersburg branch independent of central headquarters and started
> releasing a series of classic Rock albums. These releases were not
> legitimate. They started with releases by The Beatles, Jesus Christ -
> Superstar, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and eventually Pink Floyd. All
> these records were released using Melodia
>  facilities, but AnTrop was operating as an independent record label and
>  was putting the Antrop logo and their own numbers and copyrights on the
>  covers. However, since all the records were printed in Melodia owned and
> run facilities, AnTrop had to give its releases additional Melodia
>  catalog numbers, which is why there are two catalog numbers on the
> releases. Antrop is the label that released most of the Pink Floyd
> albums in Russia. "P" in the AnTrop catalog numbers stands for Russian
> letter "P" (that looks like Greek "Pi"). AnTrop records were all pressed
>  in Aprelevka.
>
> Are there any labels left like this in Russia,that are quasi-independent
> from the Universals, EMIs,or Sony-BMG,or have they absorbed the whole market
> there too?
>
>
>
>
>
>
>