The Russian 90s disco: 20 songs and who actually made them

1988, Saratov. Former OBKhSS officer Alexander Shishinin and composer Vitaliy Okorokov assemble a female group called Kombinaciya - inspired by a Mirage concert. A year later "Russian Girls" will sound across the country, and by 1992 "Dva kusocheka kolbaski" ("Two Little Slices of Sausage") will become a signature of the Russian 90s disco. Behind every track on the dancefloor stood a specific producer, composer and studio - and often these were not the faces flashing in the music videos. The twenty tracks below are broken down not as a hit parade, but by their creators: who wrote the music and lyrics, which studio recorded them, which label released them.

#Okorokov and Shishinin: Kombinaciya from Saratov

Vitaliy Okorokov - the composer who wrote the music for most of Kombinaciya's early hits - later also worked with Linda. Alexander Shishinin was the group's director and producer, a former OBKhSS employee. The lead singers were found in Saratov: Okorokov brought Alena Apina from the conservatory, and Shishinin spotted Tatyana Ivanova on the street.

• "Russian Girls" (1989) - the group's first hit, all-Union popularity. Music by Vitaliy Okorokov. Released on the Melodiya label (min'ion "Show-group Kombinaciya"). According to Okorokov, the lyrics were written collectively - by himself, Apina and Ivanova
• "American Boy" (1990) - from the album "Moskovskaya propiska". Music by Okorokov. Lyrics credited to Shishinin, but poet Yury Druzhkov claimed he wrote them - no legal proof exists. The Russian Authors' Society registry lists Druzhkov as author of other group texts, including "Bereg krasny, bereg bely", "Vishnyovaya devyatka" and "Syorega". In the 2004 album reissues, Druzhkov was credited for "Ne grusti", "Modnitsa" and "Poydyom so mnoy" instead of Shishinin
• "Bukhgalter" ("Accountant", 1990) - same album. Music video directed by Sergey Kosach
• "Dva kusocheka kolbaski" (1992) - title track of the album recorded with new lead singer Svetlana Kashina (joined January 1992). Music by Okorokov. In March 1993 Shishinin was murdered, and Okorokov gradually distanced himself from the group

#Matvienko and Polonsky: the Ivanushki factory

Igor Matvienko - composer and producer who founded Ivanushki International in 1995. He wrote the music for every song; arrangements were made jointly with sound designer Igor Polonsky; lyrics by Alexander Shaganov, Mikhail Andreev, Leonid Derbenev and German Vitke. The group's name was coined by German Vitke, who walked into the studio and said: "What kind of Ivanushki are these?"

• "Tuchi" ("Clouds", 1996) - from the debut album "Konechno on" (May 1996). Trip-hop and breakbeat were atypical for Russian pop, but it was the "Tuchi" video that made the group famous. Music by Matvienko
• "Kukla" ("Doll", 1997) - from the remix album "Konechno on remix". Remixes by Igor Polonsky, Moralny Kodex keyboardist Konstantin Smirnov and DJ Maxim Milyutenko
• "Topolinyy pukh" ("Poplar Fluff", 1998) - #1 on Russian Radio's chart. Music by Matvienko. As of 2020, the group's most-streamed track on Spotify and Apple Music

#Malikov and Cherkasov: Eurodance in Russian

Ruki Vverh! - Sergey Zhukov and Alexey Potekhin - started out at Europa Plus Samara radio in 1993. The group's first name, Mr. Ray Company, was chosen in honour of Ray Slijngaard of 2 Unlimited. The first release under the name "Ruki Vverh!" was the single "Love Story" (1996) on the Pavian Records label, which released Moscow underground rappers. From late 1996, producers Andrey Malikov (previously with the group Tekhnologiya) and Andrey Cherkasov managed the group. Female vocals were recorded by Elizaveta Rodnyanskaya, later replaced by dancer Anastasiya Kondrykinskaya - the standard "one person sings, man-woman-man on stage" setup, as with Hi-Fi, Demo and Virus!.

• "Student" (1997) - from the first album "Dyshite ravnomerno". Entered the top ten of Russian Radio's "Russkaya gorka" chart. Vocals by Rodnyanskaya
• "Kroshka moya" ("My Baby", 1998) - from the album "Sdelay pogromche!". The group's most recognisable hit
• "Pesenka" ("Little Song", 1998) - same album. In 2000 the German group ATC recorded a cover, "Around the World (La La La La La)" - Top-30 in the US, Top-20 in the UK. According to Zhukov, royalties from the cover exceeded the group's income for the previous eight years

In 1999 the album "Bez tormozov", according to Zhukov, sold 12 million copies, of which 8 million were pirate. The musicians received $700 for it; the rest went to producer Malikov. At the end of 1999 the group terminated the contract and created their own label, "Plyashushchie chelovechki".

#Maxim Fadeev: Linda and electronic ethnic

Linda (real name Svetlana Geyman) began in 1993 with producer Yury Ayzenšpis and composer Vitaliy Okorokov - the same one behind Kombinaciya. The first song, "Non-stop" (music by Okorokov, lyrics by Liza Myalik), reached the finals of the "Song of the Year" festival. The second, "Igra s ognyom" ("Playing with Fire", music by Andrey Misin, lyrics by Karen Kavaleryan), came with a video directed by Fyodor Bondarchuk. But the sound that made Linda famous belonged to another composer - Maxim Fadeev, who was invited to rework the arrangement of "Igra s ognyom".

• "Malo ognya" ("Not Enough Fire", 1994) - pre-single from the debut album "Pesni tibetskikh lam" (August 1994). Music by Fadeev. The album sold 250,000 copies and went platinum
• "Severnyy veter" ("Northern Wind", 1996) - the third most-rotated track on Maximum radio in 1996. Music by Fadeev
• "Vorona" ("Crow", 1996) - title track of the album "Vorona" (released 2 December 1996). Third best-selling album of 1997 - over 2,100,000 copies in Russia. Music by Fadeev

#Ayzenšpis: the producer who discovered Stashevsky

Yury Ayzenšpis produced Linda until the end of 1993, and in 1993 found another artist - Vlad Stashevsky (real surname Tverdokhlebov), a 19-year-old student playing piano at the Master club. The first song, "Dorogi, po kotorym my idyom" (1993), was written by composer Vladimir Matsky.

• "Pozovi menya v nochi" ("Call Me in the Night", 1996) - Ovation prize, "Shlyager-1996" category. The video was shown on leading TV channels over 500 times. That same year Stashevsky was named the most pirated artist
• "Glaza chaynogo tsveta" ("Tea-coloured Eyes", 1997) - the eponymous album, Stashevsky's last major success with Ayzenšpis. They parted ways in 1999

#Adamov and Mal'chishnik: rap on the dancefloor

Alexey Adamov assembled Mal'chishnik in spring 1991 - one of the first rap groups in the USSR. Lyrics by Andrey "Delfin" Lysikov, music by Pavel "Mutor" Galkin. The debut album "Pogovorim o sekse" (1992) sold over a million copies.

• "Noch" ("Night", 1991) - one of the first two recorded songs. The video was played on the 2x2 channel eight times a day for two weeks straight
• "Ya khochu tebya" ("I Want You", October 1991) - the first song with Delfin. The chorus uses fragments of female moans from 2 Live Crew's "Me So Horny" and "C'mon Babe" (1989). Recorded at the Klass studio in Izmaylovsky Park, sound engineer Yan Mirensky
• "Seks bez pereryva" ("Sex Without Break", 1991) - the music uses a Fender Rhodes piano sample from The Mohawks' funk track "The Champ" (1968). Delfin wrote the lyrics on a train's second bunk returning from a tour. On 13 December 1991, producer Adamov sold the cassette album to two publishers - Studio Soyz and the Marathon agency

Lemokh and Kar-Man: DIY Eurodance

Sergey Lemokh and Bogdan Titomir began performing in November 1989; on 1 January 1990 they signed a contract with the Gala studio. Lemokh composed the music - for instance, the song "Parizh", which producer Arkadiy Kupnik noticed and proposed forming a group around. The 1994 album "Russkaya massirovannaya zvukovaya agressiya" is one of the few Russian-language albums entirely in the Eurodance style. More on the synth-pop roots of Russian dance in the articles on Russian synth-pop and Soviet synth-pop.

#Valov and Bad Balance: Leningrad rap

Vlad Valov (Sheff) and Gleb Matveev founded Bad Balance on 20 September 1989 in Leningrad - originally as a breakdance crew. With the arrival of Sergey Krutikov ("Mikhey") in 1991, the group became musical. Their calling card - the rap track "Donetskiy kray" (1991), one of the first rap recordings in the USSR.

#Vetlitskaya and the solo singers

Not every hit of the Russian 90s disco came out of producer teams. Natalya Vetlitskaya began a solo career in 1990 - before that she was a dancer and backing vocalist in the groups Rondo, Klass, Ideya Fiks and Mirage. The hit "Posmotri v glaza" (1991) made her famous; she has seven studio albums. Lada Dance (real name Lada Volkova, born 11 September 1966) scored hits with "Devotchka-noch / Baby tonight" and "Aromat lyubvi". Na-Na - a group founded by Bari Alibasov in 1989, winner of the Ovation prize in 1994 and 1995.

#What these twenty songs had in common

Each went through the same path: studio → cassette or CD → Gorbushka and kiosks → the community-centre dancefloor. The music writer and the lyric writer were often different people; the producer was a third; the face in the video was a fourth. When Ruki Vverh! broke their contract with Malikov, it turned out that for 12 million copies sold the musicians received $700 - the producer scheme took almost everything. The same happened in Eurodance abroad, where shadow vocalists sang and the producer built the visual image. The difference is that the Russian 90s disco lived on pirate cassettes and compilations - and royalties to authors came even less often. On how foreign covers worked with this repertoire, read the article on Soviet songs covered in Italo-disco style.

In March 1993, Alexander Shishinin - Kombinaciya's producer - was murdered in the stairwell of a building on Metallurgov Street. Vitaliy Okorokov stepped away from the group, and Alexander Tolmatsky became the new producer. By then, "American Boy" and "Dva kusocheka kolbaski" were already living their own lives - on cassettes, compilations and dancefloors, separate from whoever recorded them and whoever released them.