Last May, Hard Times captivated us with The Lost D.A.T.S (Part One)—a remarkable collection of unreleased and freshly unearthed gems from the vaults of NYC legend DJ Romain. But the story didn’t end there. To our surprise and delight, Romain had delivered an even larger treasure trove of beats—too many to reveal all at once.Now, Hard Times is proud to present the next chapter: DJ Romain – The Lost D.A.T.S (Part Two)."1996-97? Yeah, that’s when New York was still NEW YORK!That was around the time we really started to get hold of exotic herbs. Copper Haze, hydroponic! The vibes in the studio were always lovely. I had hair at the time! Dread-Locs down to my shoulders... I was still rockin’ the Wallabees, or British Walkers as we called them - representing for Brooklyn and my West Indian roots! There was no social media, no supervision, nobody all up in our business… It was classic "mind your own business" NYC Vibes! I was DJing at a lot of the hot clubs and THE hottest afterhours in the city. There were nights when I saw Micheal Douglas roll into the afters with Grace Jones - they were there to party and unwind and I was there dropping the dope tracks for the people.When it was studio time, with my homie Matt Echols...I was probably setting things off with some quality herbage, a big ass bag of Funyuns and my trusty SP-1200, lol. I had picked up some tips and tricks from Todd Terry and by '96-'97 I was a Shaolin with it myself! This was around the time tracks like "Flowers" and "Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Dub)" were tearing up the clubs. I wanted to be able to get my ideas out with no problem, and by then I had a lot of confidence...Being able to Dj in some of the hottest NY hot spots at the time, I was able to really see what worked and what didn't on the dancefloor. The best House Dancers from around the world and around the Tri-State area would be at my jams. I'm talking Ejoe, Voodoo Ray, maybe kids from the Mop-Top Crew... I was definitely taking note of the kind of rhythms and sounds that would make them go crazy on the dancefloor!And that's how we went about it - I laid down the rhythms that made it happen in my sets and translated the vibes I was picking up from NYC itself. Matt threw down musically and we were just being as creative and inventive as possible! But we always kept in mind that our job was to make the people on the dancefloor jump!
A lot of the jams from those days got signed to various record labels, we dropped a lot of them on our own label...and some of them ended up in the archives - until now!"

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1996-97? Yeah, that’s when New York was still NEW YORK!

That was around the time we really started to get hold of exotic herbs. Copper Haze, hydroponic! The vibes in the studio were always lovely. I had hair at the time! Dread-Locs down to my shoulders... I was still rockin’ the Wallabees, or British Walkers as we called them - representing for Brooklyn and my West Indian roots!

There was no social media, no supervision, nobody all up in our business… It was classic "mind your own business" NYC Vibes! I was DJing at a lot of the hot clubs and THE hottest afterhours in the city. There were nights when I saw Micheal Douglas roll into the afters with Grace Jones - they were there to party and unwind and I was there dropping the dope tracks for the people.

When it was studio time, with my homie Matt Echols...I was probably setting things off with some quality herbage, a big ass bag of Funyuns and my trusty SP-1200, lol. I had picked up some tips and tricks from Todd Terry and by '96-'97 I was a Shaolin with it myself! This was around the time tracks like "Flowers" and "Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Dub)" were tearing up the clubs. I wanted to be able to get my ideas out with no problem, and by then I had a lot of confidence...

Being able to Dj in some of the hottest NY hot spots at the time, I was able to really see what worked and what didn't on the dancefloor. The best House Dancers from around the world and around the Tri-State area would be at my jams. I'm talking Ejoe, Voodoo Ray, maybe kids from the Mop-Top Crew... I was definitely taking note of the kind of rhythms and sounds that would make them go crazy on the dancefloor!

And that's how we went about it - I laid down the rhythms that made it happen in my sets and translated the vibes I was picking up from NYC itself. Matt threw down musically and we were just being as creative and inventive as possible! But we always kept in mind that our job was to make the people on the dancefloor jump!

A lot of the jams from those days got signed to various record labels, we dropped a lot of them on our own label...and some of them ended up in the archives - until now!"

- DJ Romain

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Huge re press of the DJ Romain 4 track EP "Timeless House" from '96! All 4 tracks still packing a punch for 2015 with "All Day, All Night" still regularly played throughout the world by discerning DJs. Re mastered and re issued for 2015 in conjunction with Nite Grooves, King Street Sounds NYC.


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A1 - Sleeque - One For The Money (Dub)
A2 - Paradise Girls - Holding Back (Paul’s Back / Dubmental Mix II)
B1 - Alexander Hope - Let The Music Take You (The Klub Head Dub)
B2 - System VIII - Underground (Untouched Dub)

WOLF Music reissue offshoot, Nothing Is Lost, strike gold again with their second release. The four track sampler cherry picks some of the greatest dub mixes to grace the legendary Easy Street label’s hall of fame, reissued and remastered.

Side A serves up two proto-house bombs dubbed out to the high heavens by the one and only Paul Simpson. Firstly, Sleeque’s sumptuous ‘One For The Money’, gets a tougher makeover with Simpson’s classic touches to the drums, echoes in all the right places and delicate splices of choice vocal refrains and piano stabs. Likewise for the A2, Simpson focuses in on that peach of a bassline from Paradise Girls – Holding Back, coupling it with Special-Intention-esque synths and cascading percussive ripples.

On the flip side, it’s a Blaze masterclass. First up, Alexander Hope (aka Josh Milan / one half of Blaze) ‘Let The Music Take You’. Produced alongside Blaze counterpart Kevin Hedge, the track gets the remix treatment from Klub Head – a further alias the two held. Honing in on the vibraphone mastery and bumping house rhythms they juice up the original with all the ethereal soul you could ever want.

Closing out the EP, a onetime collaboration between Blaze and Otis Vick, System VIII’s super soulful ‘Underground (Untouched Dub)’. Josh Milan’s exquisite and iconic vocals marry with sweet sax licks providing the perfect late night groover or, just as equally, the ultimate beachside roller.

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DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: gpsr@wordandsound.netMore