Russian electronica is best understood as three simultaneous but stylistically distant strands. Pompeya (formed 2007, Moscow) sing in English in an 80s-synth-pop-revival mode (Depeche Mode / New Order translated for the SXSW export market). Little Big (formed 2013, St Petersburg, fronted by Ilya Prusikin) do rave-punk / comedy-electro with lyrics in Russian and English, exemplified by the 2018 TikTok-viral 'Skibidi'. IC3PEAK (formed 2013, Moscow — Nastya Kreslina and Nikolai Kostylev) do politically-loaded hyperpop / witch-house, hit by state investigation after 'Смерти больше нет (Death No More)' in 2018. Producer-plus-vocalist duos are typical; visuals matter as much as sound.

Pompeya arrived first, sung in English and picked up at SXSW 2011. Little Big followed and hit peak virality with 'Skibidi' in 2018 — the accompanying dance challenge crossed the TikTok Anglosphere. IC3PEAK's 2018 track 'Смерти больше нет' put them under Russian police investigation because the video showed the singers pouring meat outside the FSB headquarters in Moscow — Russian federal security services opened a case, and the group's YouTube channel was restricted domestically. All three acts effectively left Russia after February 2022.

'Skibidi' is a four-layer rave-punk track — synth stab, pop-punk power chord, mechanical hi-hat, chanted vocal — that works only because Prusikin and his dancer Sonya Tayurskaya's video choreography fuses with the audio. IC3PEAK's 'Смерти больше нет' is the opposite: whispered female vocal, sparse kick, cold metallic synth, deliberate silences, and video imagery that treats state authority as its primary lyrical subject. Pompeya's '90' is a clean 80s-synth-pop tribute in English, closer in feel to New Order's 'Blue Monday' than to any Russian antecedent.

Little Big, 'Skibidi' (2018) — the widest gateway. IC3PEAK, 'Смерти больше нет' (2018) — the political and stylistic opposite. Pompeya, '90' (2011) for the English-language 80s revival strand. IC3PEAK are late-night, headphones, red-room music; Little Big are house-party-loud music.

Little Big were selected as Russia's Eurovision 2020 representatives with 'Uno', but the contest was cancelled by COVID-19 — a near-miss on what would probably have been the group's biggest global exposure. After February 2022 they relocated to Los Angeles and released explicit anti-war statements. IC3PEAK's Nastya Kreslina has been repeatedly questioned by police in Russia; their YouTube is geo-restricted inside Russia and viewable domestically only via VPN. This has not stopped the music from spreading, only routed it through the same underground channels Soviet magnitizdat used forty years earlier.