Critic’s Choice

Although hot remixers come and go, only a relative handful become hot solo artists. But Timo Maas, a Madonna-approved dial-twister who appears Saturday, June 1, at Vinyl, seems ready to make the leap. Loud, Maas’s first non-remix CD, recently issued by Kinetic Records, is a wonderfully accomplished blend of clever dance-floor slammers and broadly accessible tracks with just the right touch of pop. The opening cut, “Help Me,” finds vocalist Kelis grooving amid a sonic landscape straight out of Mars Attacks!; “Hash Driven” takes listeners on an effortlessly addictive head trip; and the glam-happy international smash “To Get Down” is the sort of tune that sounds kinda dumb on the first listen but terrific by the second. Not exactly a novice, Maas has been a DJ for nearly twenty years. But as Loud makes clear, his time is now.