Timo Maas: Music For The Maases : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Sometimes it's all about one tune. In German remix king Timo Maas' case, that tune would be his zooming reinvention of a number called "Dooms Night," originally recorded by the group Azzido Da Bass. Maas' remix -- a jet-stream buzz of cartoon scratches, Ringo Starr beats and perhaps the most whimsical, mischievous bass line in the annals of electronic music -- tore up European dance floors throughout 2000, with Fatboy Slim recently body-slamming New Yorkers with the track in the middle of a ripping set at the Manhattan club Centro-Fly. The Maas mix is especially delicious because it's electro-funky in an unnameable way: It's not big-beat, it's not two-step, and its playfulness is about a million miles away from classic Detroit techno. Unfortunately, Maas' own tracks, and his other mixes, which make up the bulk of this two-disc compilation, are much less sensational. With the exception of a spongy, flanger-flavored redo of the Green Velvet classic "Flash," the rest of Music for the Maases is standard-issue trance techno-kinetic and nice enough if you like that sort of thing, but not particularly unique or inspired. Still, even though "Dooms Night" is the only real jewel on this mixed set, the song glitters like a genuine one-track wonder. (RS 861)

PAT BLASHILL