Its a turbulent time for underground dance music. While many DJs and labels obsess over repeating an old skool house sound, Souvenir #9 replies with a provocative glimpse of the future. Ruede Hagelstein has been making a name for himself as Berliner to watch out for since his first EP in 2004. Since then hes been attracting praise from DJs like Claude Von Stroke and Laurent Garnier and catching the ears of Souvenir bosses Ali and Basti from Tiefschwarz with records like his acclaimed Ghostdri... Read more >>

Its a turbulent time for underground dance music. While many DJs and labels obsess over repeating an old skool house sound, Souvenir #9 replies with a provocative glimpse of the future. Ruede Hagelstein has been making a name for himself as Berliner to watch out for since his first EP in 2004. Since then hes been attracting praise from DJs like Claude Von Stroke and Laurent Garnier and catching the ears of Souvenir bosses Ali and Basti from Tiefschwarz with records like his acclaimed Ghostdriver EP in 2007. The Modest Theme is slice of epic and chilling tech house. Its opening track, builds shimmering string instruments around a sonic jungle of machine noise. From this soup of futuristic rhythms a colossal horn hook beams out from the track like a lighthouse in the distance on a black as hell, gale whipped night. House or techno rarely comes as dramatic as this and its accompanying tracks add fuel to these insistent, urgent themes. Ruedes remix of Dillons C Unseen Sea gathers ghostly surging wind noises and the eerie effects-soaked sounds of a child together with foreboding percussion. Perfect for orchestrating that point in a night when the music locks a crowd into a tense, dramatic groove, its carried along at the midway of the track by an off kilter synth that bounces in and out of key taking the sanity of any discerning dancefloor with it. The final track Its On picks up the pace of the EP for a bustling finale. A 303 style bassline opens and filters closed throughout the track raising the tension and releasing the pressure while unsettling synths and reverb soaked percussion continue the mysterious, surreal vibe of the EP. The future it seems has never looked so Ruede.