Tiefschwarz is a tech house group comprising brothers, Alexander "Ali" (June 7, 1967-) and Sebastian "Basti" (December 28, 1969-) Schwarz, which formed in Stuttgart in 1996. Peter Hoff, who runs the Benztown studios in Stuttgart, joined later, and completed the first Tiefschwarz production team. Their name means "deep black" in German, and is a combination of the brothers' surnames, and their love of deep house.
Their earliest productions were released on the Continuemusics label in 1997, and their first taste of a well-respected label was with their Music track on François Kevorkian's Wave Music label in 1999. The team released their first album, RAL9005 on the Four Music label in 2001, which was later licensed to Derrick Carter and Luke Solomon's Classic Recordings label. Tiefschwarz continued to release on Classic until its collapse in 2005, as well as releasing on labels such as Fine and International DeeJay Gigolo Records. Many of their tracks have been licensed to compilations, from the Stereo Sushi series, to compilations for Bugged Out!, Get Physical and Renaissance, and in 2006, they released a mix of their own for the Fabric (London) mix series.