Timo Maas

Born in 1969 in Bückeburg, West Germany, Timo Maas emerged on the German rave scene in the early 1990s after starting out as a DJ at local parties and clubs. His work ranges across house, techno, progressive house, breakbeat and touches of UK garage, characterized by club-oriented production, tight grooves and a tension often darker than melodic. After several early maxis in the mid-1990s, Maas gained visibility under his own name and the alias Orinoko, before a turning point came with his remix of “Dooms Night” by Azzido Da Bass, produced with Martin Buttrich in 1999. He followed with the compilations and DJ mixes Music for the Maases (2000) and Connected (2001), and released three studio albums: Loud (2002), Pictures (2005) and Lifer (2013). His career also includes significant remix work for Depeche Mode, Tori Amos, Muse, Placebo, Madonna and Moby, and a steady presence on the club scenes in Hamburg, London, New York and Ibiza, notably a long residency at DC10. From the late 2000s Maas launched the Rockets & Ponies label and developed new collaborations with Santos and later James Teej, exploring a more minimal and psychedelic strand of house and techno; their rework of Paul McCartney’s “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five” was nominated for a Grammy in 2016.