DJ Tonka (born June 24, 1973 in Mainz, Germany; real name Thomas René Gerlach), is an electronic music artist. He is also known as Tonka, Chip Tunes, and Thomastic. Career In his early career, Thomas Gerlach worked with fellow producer Ian Pooley in the groups Outrage, Space Cube, and T'N'I. Together they produced several records in techno, progressive house and breakbeat. In 1996, the partnership was dissolved (an EP with unreleased tracks was still released in 1997), and coincidentally, both started producing a more mainstream-friendly sound. As a solo artist, Gerlach took on the name DJ Tonka and began producing house music, with influences from synth pop and the American garage house scene. He achieved some notoriety as a remixer, reworking tunes such as "Trapped" for disco artist Colonel Abrams, "Love Shack" for The B52's and "Push It" for Salt-N-Pepa