The hottest screenwriter in Hollywood is some guy named “Shakespeare” and the hottest house tracks of 2025 were made in 1996. DJ Romain’s “The Lost D.A.T.S.” series evokes a time when Times Square was dirty and nightlife was a freaky wonderland. The series from Hard Times enters its second volume with four new unreleased tracks from DJ Romain’s archives on The Lost D.A.T.S. Part Two.

“Insane” is the lead track, with dense percussion and a sample of a vocalist holding not the vowel but the last nnnn sound from the title. Insannnnnnnnnne. It’s amazing that despite being able to see waveforms visually on a screen and dice them up with scientific precision (assisted, as always, by an “undo” button), there’s much less of this kind of experimentation in 4/4 club-ready tracks today, like turning a vocal inside out like a sock and back again. Though unreleased, it’s easy to imagine this dominating clubs back in the day despite how odd it is — it’s straight fire.

“Gotta Make It Better” is more straight ahead, notable for a virtuoso organ solo (which never makes a good track sound bad and has made many average tracks sound great.)

“Release My Body” skates along the edge of the kind of music Ron Trent and Chez Damier were making on Prescription at the time. No big surprise there — I think most Chez and Ron fans are also DJ Romain fans — but this is A-list worthy stuff.

 

⚪️ The Lost D.A.T.S. Part Two Tracklisting

DJ Romain: The Lost D.A.T.S. Part Two (Hard Times / 12" Vinyl)
1. Insane (05:25)
2. Release My Body (07:15)
3. Find My Way (Tribal Dub Mix) (06:59)
4. Gotta Make It Better (06:43)