Digital Wanderer

Here phoneme asks everyone for their top 5 Russian music. Later, though, under pressure from the Russophile public, he expands it to a top 10.

Why not write one. Despite my ardent support for all manner of attacks on Russian music, I’m not without sin myself—there’s no escaping your native language.

My Top 5 Russian musicians, in no particular order, with explanations

Psychea—emo-shit cybercore. I didn’t get the appeal at first, but after a few listens it really started hitting the spot, and then I played it endlessly
Dolphin—for the album "Zvezda", in which absolutely everything is simply perfect and meticulous. Such a degree of perfection is downright frightening. And what a cyberpunk atmosphere—it makes you want to just lie down and plug in.
Tequilajazzz—a classic, dammit. The albums about billions of steps and "Above Autumn", and then onward in reverse chronological order
Aquarium—for me, Aquarium means their last 2 albums. I haven’t heard the rest and don’t want to. That’s my idiotically principled position
Zvuki Mu—now this is a classic of that strange Russian-bloke-avant-garde genre. It’s probably a rare example of genuinely original Russian music

Expansion to the Top 10

2h company—my heart’s beloved postmodernist machine-gun recitatives of the MTV generation over the harsh electronics of Christmas Baubles. Even that sounds surreal
Kasta—straightforward Russian rap as it is. Fans of true hip-hop with niggas shout "Boo!"
Kirpichi—straightforward Russian nonsense as it is. Fans of true hip-hop with niggas shout "Boo!" for an encore
Slot—ultra-pop nu metal with female vocals. Fans of true hip-hop moo theatrically, stomp their feet, and wave their arms
W.K.? for the one and only song "Rastaman" (remix version), which, as far as I remember, was the last one to send the joy-and-happiness meter in my head off the scale. Fans of true hip-hop look bewildered