Eastern Europe diggin’ trip

Posted on Oct 9, 2008 by |

Last week, we (Fab-E and rHil) spent a few days in Budapest and Krakow in order to bring back to Brussels some local musical rarities from the 60′s and 70′s. We started our trip by trying to discover what Budapest’s record shops had to offer. The most critical point being to find a store which has not moved or was not closed.

After a few hours, we finally found Dob Records (Szt. István krt. 23, Budapest) in one of the numerous Budapest’s courtyard. This shop is almost impossible to find if you don’t check the map but the owner is really … laid back and don’t bother customers listening to records for hours.

The second shop Laci Bacsi (Kertesz Utca 42, Budapest) had moved without leaving any notice. But we found it by chance in the middle of the night when coming back (quite drunk) from a party. The selection of Eastern music from the 70′s is quite impressive (mainly rock and Jazz from Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania or Russia) but the staff could be friendlier.

Those seemed to be the only two decent shops in the Budapest for the kind of music that we were looking for. But there are countless second-hand shops filled with 80′s crap, notably the Ecstevery market a bit outside the city. This one is worth checking if you’re a fan of communist memorabilia.

Then it took us ten hours to cover the 300km between Budapest and Krakow with the night train.

In Krakow, there are two spots to remember. High Fidelity (Podbrzezie 6, Krakow) in the Heart of the Jewish quarter Kaziemir. A very good store if you looking for Polish Jazz, Rock or just crazy breaks.

While walking through the city, we saw a guy carrying records and, without knowing where we were (no address, sorry), we arrived at a flea market where a few crates were waiting for us. Diggers’ intuition!

Back to our Budapest HQ to finish our trip with a listening session on rHil’s portable turntable aka the lunchbox.

Fab-E is taking care of “Hasta la Musica”, LDBK‘s show focusing on Latin Music.
rHil is responsible for “Smoking Apple” and will play a set of his Eastern Europe finds in the Laid Back show on the 29th of October.


Published by FabE - FabE aka Fabian Verhoeven is a Brussels based dj and record collector. Selecting Latin music for LDBK radio and member of the Laid Back vzw/asbl, he also makes sure to write a travel report for us every time he is abroad.

9 Responses to “Eastern Europe diggin’ trip”

  1. Dee, on October 9th, 2008 at 8:54 pm Said:

    looking forward hearing the polish jazz show, the little of polish jazz ive heard has been very nice…

  2. Laid Back » Laid Back Show - 22/10/2008, on October 23rd, 2008 at 8:01 am Said:

    [...] week in the Laid Back show: rHil with some eastern european bangers. Related Posts: Laid Back Show - 15/10/2008Laid Back Show - 08/10/2008Laid Back Show - [...]

  3. Laid Back » Laid Back Show - 29/10/2008, on October 30th, 2008 at 8:05 am Said:

    [...] few weeks ago , rHil & Fab-E went on a digging mission in Eastern Europe (Budapest and Krakow). It’s time now to discover the music they brought [...]

  4. Laid Back » Madrid digging trip, on April 11th, 2009 at 12:53 pm Said:

    [...] digging in Milan, Torino, Budapest, Krakow and Istanbul in 2008, I decided to continue my quest for records on a more regular basis in 2009. [...]

  5. cezx, on May 31st, 2009 at 9:32 pm Said:

    Im gonna hit those spots in budapest. Hunting for a bunch of Romanian stuff from 70z and 80z

    thanks! peace yo

  6. rHil, on May 31st, 2009 at 9:46 pm Said:

    you ‘ll find some romanian stuff in laci bacsi, not so sure about the other places

    have fun

  7. beb, on October 10th, 2009 at 4:31 pm Said:

    Confirmed, Laci Bacsi rules!!

  8. Alberto, on February 15th, 2011 at 7:33 pm Said:

    I found some records in Lacsi Bacsi, but staff isn’t friendly!

    I did dig around the city and I couldn’t find so much records, but some….

    If you wanna hear some of them check this set:

    http://www.mixcloud.com/souldust/jazz-for-your-feet/

    At Lacsi Bacsi I found a russian release of a Japanesse Band quite weird for me.

  9. Charlie, on July 21st, 2011 at 7:12 pm Said:

    Ye the guy at Lacsi Bacsi isn’t a very smiley guy for real… But the shop is worth checking! Dob record was closed in august for me. But let me mention the huge flea market in Budapest: “Ecseri” !! That was the spot for me. Several sellers there, good material for fair prices. It’s about 15 or 20 minutes from the center by bus. cheerz

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