The history of SZÈKI KURVA begins in late 1992. From murky beginnings in Budapest, Cologne and Novi Sad came five foulmouthed white trash punks playing a technopunk variant of Hungarian music. Younger bands welcomed their irreverence; most traditional bands despised and feared them. Using sped-up folk records on their turntables didn't help; perhaps worst of all, SZÈKI KURVA weren't even pure Hungarian! The band was an ethnic melting pot- Gypsy, Italian, Serbo-Croat, English, Romanian...

SZÈKI KURVA sprang up from Budapest's sprawling Esceri market, which convenes on Saturdays at Nagykrsi utca, just off the E75 motorway. It is possibly the biggest fleamarket in Europe, and you can buy anything. Gypsies trade horses and vehicles at the market's entrance. Esceri itself is an assortment of shacks and warehouses on scrubland left over during the motorway's construction, and it is surrounded by a high brick wall. Some of the band's members used to run stalls here, and developed their trademark SzÈkimuffin sound one Saturday morning by accident, when two ghetto blasters on facing stalls, one playing Ice Cube, the other playing an imported bootleg tape of Hungarian folk music from SzÈk county in Transylvania, seemed to gel and form something completely strange and new.

SZÈKI KURVA were steeped in the Táncház (Dance House) tradition of Budapest, having as their musical contemporaries Muzsikás, Vasmalom, and singers like Márta SebestyÈn. Unable to afford turntables and mixers at the time, the band produced homemade tapes using tape loops, cut in with samples from videos popular in Eastern Europe such as Predator, Terminator, Apocalypse Now, and Japanese cartoons from the TV. At the same time, guitar was added into the mix- SZÈKI KURVA's trademark dirtied-down punk metal sound. Those members of SZÈKI KURVA who came from the ethnic conflicts in former Yugoslavia brought with them their experience in running 'Turbofolk' sound systems, where traditional instruments are put through large mobile DJing equipment.

At this time in Hungary, other bands were experimenting along similar lines, such as Zsarátnok, Barbaro, and the electronic composer Gazember. But SZÈKI KURVA were the band that took the leap and came to base itself in London's Hungarian community. Events came to a head in mid-1993; their original manager died of a heroin overdose in Romania and a warrant was put out for their arrest in that country;

their lead guitarist was called up for service in the Croatian HVO and killed at Vukovar; and they were banned from Hungarian state TV after the frontman Ludas Matyi's involvement in the infamous 'biting the head off a chicken' incident. Following this debacle, the band decided to break away from their dodgy, gypsy-mafia background at Esceri market, and left for England.

Their new focal centre was Cardinal Mindszentyház in Ladbroke Grove, where their burgeoning fanbase of Hungarian au pair girls and refugees from former Yugoslavia convene. Although SZÈKI KURVA still class themselves, when all is said and done, as a Táncház band that can play the traditional Hungarian tunes at will, they are immersed in and fascinated by the musical styles that surround them in London- hardcore jungle, ragga, hip hop for the beats; thrash metal for the riffs; traditional Hungarian, Romanian, Balkan music for the melody and lyrics. Now Indian film music, Turkish radio music and even street organs are finding their way into the mix.

Rumours that surround them in London, such as their playing poker at rehearsals instead of practising, of never playing live gigs, and of carrying out Situationist guerrilla raids on full moon nights- are mostly true. All of SZÈKI KURVA's imagery and artwork is sampled Japanese Manga cartoons. No photo of the band members has ever been officially released. This is thought to be either because of various shady gangster-type backgrounds, or because of the number of Serbian paramilitary groups they have upset. Nowadays, SZÈKI KURVA calls itself "just a Gypsy band" since all the original Hungarian members got deported or went back to the Old Country.

In Budapest, you can still hear them in absentia, mainly on Tilos Rádió; since Hungarian customs impounds SZÈKI KURVA records coming into the country by post, au pairs go home with their cassettes, which are rapidly bootlegged and end up as far away as SzÈk town and Sarajevo. Elsewhere they are played on independent radio stations in Eurasia and North America. Meanwhile in London they have their own label, Fekete Galamb Zene (Black Dove Music). The name is a calculated punk response to the abiding imagery in Táncház songs of the white dove. SZÈKI KURVA, as always, are apart, the opposite, the bad crowd. The black dove.

(SZÈKI KURVA have their own pirate radio station, Kicsi Róka Rádió, broadcasting from various locations in London.)