Ruff Engine was a Saint Petersburg drum & bass group formed in the late 1990s by Ruffen, then known as ZyZ, and remembered as one of the first techstep crews in Russia. The line-up was Ruffen (Dmitry Rusak), Pirj (Filipp Pirojkov) and Chaoz (Vasiliy Myazin). The group’s debut album Face Off came out in 1999. The second album, Drum’n’Bass Addiction, followed in January 2001 on Total Advance Music (catalogue TAMCD001), a label ZyZ helped organise. The same year the group appeared on Element 4 (Water), credited to Ruff Engine vs. Dissonance, on UL.TRA Records.
Ruff Engine split around 2002. ZyZ carried on solo as Ruffen and from 2002 worked closely with Dissident; together they pioneered a techno-leaning wave of Russian drum & bass.
