Rubella, a business student at Central Washington University currently studying in Hungary, sent in this report from Central Europe.

"We can't dance to this, there aren't any words."
"Can't you, like, play something with a different beat?"
"Do you have any Puff Daddy?"

Sick and tired of my peer's lack of appreciation of electronic music, I decided to spend a year attending university in Pécs, Hungary, and after a month here I must say that I haven't been disappointed.

Electronic music is so prevalent here they just call it music. They even play it on Z+, the music television channel here. My British roommates have been quite amused by my child-like wonder, but I'm seriously jazzed about the music here, that and the fact that I can legally drink in public.

Pécs

The first club I went to was B52. I was absolutely amazed by my first night at a real club. "It's not as good as Cream" my Liverpudlian roommate told me, only mildly amused. Another great club is Boccaccio.

Converted from an old factory from the communist era, the industrial decor gives it a more hardcore demeanor. The center building of the university has a club as well, I've only been mildly amused there. Euro-pop is a lot better than American-pop, but there's still only so much one can stomach.

Budapest

Budapest is the heart of the nation and has a scene that rivals any in the world. While there the first thing you need to do is find a copy of Freee Magazine (not free, Freee). It has excellent listings of clubs, parties, record shops, and if you can read Hungarian there are articles about the latest trends and hottest DJ's. There are usually about three parties a week so one should have no trouble finding their favorite genre represented. At any party you go t, there's about a one in three chance that you'll see a pair of VJ's from Z+, and if you have an interesting tattoo or piercing you might find yourself as a feature between videos the following week.

"The scene in Budapest is great.....you get more of an international flavor here," Michael, a guy from Boston told me at a party featuring The Freestylers (UK). "They come from all over Europe, some of the best in the world. Something like this could never happen in the States, think of all the lawsuits that would happen there." He's right, the great thing about the Hungarian scene isn't just the music, there's also the fact that there aren't as many stupid problems. You don't get frisked for weapons, your ID isn't scrutinized, your bag isn't searched, you aren't herded out the door at 3am, and there's a much happier aura because of this. When the music stops at about seven in the morning the crowd stops and just stands there. The whole place is totally silent for three whole minutes until we admit it's over, cheering for the DJ.

Rubella's homepage: www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/6942/rubella.html
E-mail: rubella@hotmail.com or justus@isc.jpte.hu

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