www.djtonka.com "Put Your Hands Up In The Air!" is just one of the many battle cries that defines the DJ TONKA brand. Growing up in a family of artists & Jazz musicians and being strongly influenced by the New Wave sound that dominated the 80s, it was the German Thomas-René Gerlach who threw the first internationally recognized House plates on the market. With the release of “Feel“, "Flashback“ and "Phun-ky" on Force Inc. US he created a new genre along the way: the cut-up disco, from which later the offshoot French House developed. "You're a Legend" were Axwell's words, when the two met for the first time - where else, but in a DJ booth. Norman Cook aka Fatboy Slim expressed this at a common set in Brighton by a spontaneous genuflection. Even french duo Daft Punk paid homage to him by name dropping in the track "Teachers" from their debut album "Homework". Together with school mate Ian Pooley he started his illustrious career in 1991 releasing early techno, house and breakbeat records under the synonyms T`N`I, Space Cube, Outrage and (solo) Thomastic on several underground labels like Edge Records (UK) and R&S (Belgium) and of cause Force Inc. Music Works. Being responsible for such massive chart radio hits "She Knows You" and "Don´t Be Afraid (To Let Yourself Go)" or his awesome house remixes for big time players such as Salt`N`Pepa, Ellie Goulding, Jimmy Somerville, The B-52`s which also received huge amounts of TV coverage on channels such as VIVA and MTV.