Timo Maas - Career

Career

Maas bought his first set of turntables at the age of 17, and played his very first DJ set in 1982 at a party in his friend's home. The beginning of his career consisted mostly of gigs around Germany playing "Top 40"-records with the occasional techno record sneaked in, but it was to be another 6 years from his debut DJ performance before he would perform his first official all-techno set. In 1992 Maas was introduced to the early German rave scene, and he went on to DJ at many different rave-events both in Germany and elsewhere, earning a name in the electronic underground scene.

Maas' first record, "The Final XS", was released in 1995. His second record release was a collaboration with another producer, Gary D, "Die Herdplatte", which was a bigger success than his first. Gary D also gained Maas a residency at Hamburg's famous club, The Tunnel, between 1994 and 1996. Through British contacts Maas played at the Bristol club Lakota. Maas also began to release records through record-labels such as Hope Recordings, both under his own name and the alias Orinoko. Maas has also recorded under many aliases such as Mad Dogs and many others together with his manager and friend Leon Alexander. In 2000 Timo Maas began a residency alongside Deep Dish at the New York club Twilo.

Maas first became popular in mainstream dance music through his remix of Azzido Da Bass' Doom's Night, in the wake of which he released Music For The Maases Volume 1, a mix album consisting of many of his previous tracks and remixes. After another mix album called Connected for Paul Oakenfold's imprint Perfecto, Maas released his own debut artist album Loud in 2002. The album was produced by German dance music production powerhouse Martin Buttrich (also known for his work with Loco Dice), and featured guest appearances from Kelis and Finley Quaye. A second Music For The Maases Volume 2, was released, again consisting of remixes and new tracks. In 2005 Maas released his second artist album Pictures, this time featuring guest artists Kelis, Neneh Cherry and Placebo's Brian Molko.

His "To Get Down" track has been widely used in movie soundtracks such as the 2003 remake of The Italian Job, Riders in 2002, as well as other mediums such as the video game FIFA Football 2003, and a Budweiser beer commercial. Another of his tracks "Unite" appears in the Fifa 2004 soundtrack. A remix of the Neighbourhood screen music is credited to him on the video game The Sims 2: Nightlife, whilst the video game Wipeout Fusion uses the song "Old School Vibes" from the album "Loud". Burnout Revenge used the General Midi remix of "First Day" was used for the game's EA TRAX.

Maas has also provided remixes for artists such as Fatboy Slim, Kelis, and Madonna. His music has been described as progressive trance, but in reality is more like progressive house.