Tony Romera does the thing I always want from a remixer and saves his best idea for the second half. The drums cut out, the vocal hangs there by itself for a few bars, and once the kick returns the bottom end has been swapped for something meaner. Same hook, different animal.
Alaia & Gallo built ‘Lipstick’ as a groove record and Romera respects that. He leaves the vocal recognizable and rebuilds the floor underneath it, a stiffer kick and a bassline that keeps moving rather than parking. It rolls. On a proper system that low-end swap you feel before you have parsed it.
Romera has been in this pocket a while. Last time he turned up in the archive it was Love Trip with Fynch, and the same habit shows up here: hook up front, drums honest. Toolroom lists Carl Cox and Roger Sanchez among the DJs who ran with the original through 2025, which is probably why this remix plays it straight instead of tearing the thing down.
Remixes of a record this worn usually go one of two ways, a full teardown or a polite re-edit. Romera found a third road, and it is the one I wanted. He leaves the part everybody already knows alone and makes the space around it hit harder.
Listen on: YouTube · YouTube Music
