Remember when big beat electronica was set to revolutionise the world? Fatboy Slim had the greatest film clips in the history of the things, you couldn’t turn on the teev for want of hearing Moby, and the Chemical Brothers were the coolest bats in the belfry. So what the fuck happened?

Was it a case of the genre’s biggest stars getting lazy and complacent, or did they just run out of decent tunes? Since Surrender, the Chemical Brothers have never had anything as striking as “Hey Girl Hey Boy”, and the new heroes – Four Tet, Caribou/Manitoba, and other associated cats – have moved into the underground. The scenes have splintered and further segmented, resulting in new evolutions in sound. Much as rock was back in 2001 and beyond, perhaps dance is going through it’s second generation of being part of the pop idiom now.

Judging from Pictures, Dusseldorf’s Timo Maas would certainly seem to think so – this album is blatantly aimed at a more commercial world. With Placebo’s Brian Molko guesting on the titular track and provides the vocal hook for single “First Day”, while Neneh Cherry appears on “High Drama” and Kelis wows on “4 UR Ears”. This is crossover dance music if it ever was – these are genuine singles, rather than musical movements and sonic experiments.

There’s no real dancefloor banger on Pictures – for that, look instead to his album Music For the Maases – but there’s plenty of memorable moments. This is not an album that at any particular time really strikes you dead in terms of its daring or originality, but it is a very listenable dance record for people who don’t like dance…like Franz Ferdinand was to new-wave, so Timo Maas is to big beat on Pictures.