Chicago welcomes Jesse Rose

I swear, we will not have pillows to greet you, Jesse.

Excuse the outsider’s perspective from which this preview reports. It was written for a local paper, but they arbitrarily decided to recruit someone else for the task at the last moment.

Rising talent Jesse Rose is not exactly easy to categorize, a fact which seems to working for him rather well. Dabbling in the clean lines and jazzy motifs of modern house, the distortion-friendly confines of electro-house, dark and grating minimal techno and life-affirming deep house has captured the attention of dance floors, critics and labels alike. When the Berlin-based, British producer isn’t releasing on Dave “Switch” Taylor’s Dubsided or Get Physical (for whom he mixed the third volume of their popular “Body Language” series), he’s running (and releasing on) the Made To Play and Front Room Recordings imprints. Rose’s most impressive release, the 2006 album “Presents More Than One,” found him collaborating with a host of equally talented artists including Henrik Schwarz and Solid Groove on a set of crisp and catchy house tunes made as much for listeners’ heads as it is for their behinds. His gig at Smart Bar (tonight @ 10 PM) is his second Chicago appearance in 2007, and if Rose’s diverse discography means anything, it’s likely to please a variety of fans.

Jesse Rose & Rob Mello, “Do You Wanna” [Front Room Recordings] (buy) (buy)

Quite possibly my favorite JR recording, it makes no distinction between Rose’s weirder impulses and more straight ahead tendencies and is instantly accessible for it. Roughly hewn synth stabs chase after the coolly intoned vocals like a game of cat-and-mouse carefully regimented through wet pads and dry hi-hat hits. I’m not sure what to expect from Rose’s set tonight (though I’m guessing he drops his cover of Steve “Silk” Hurley’s “Jack Your Body,” already out on Gigolo), but this is the tune I’ll be waiting for all evening.

 

Mobilee Showcase tonight in Chicago

There are a few fantastic shows to go to this weekend if you’re in Chicago and not escaping to the DEMF (like me). Tonight we have the Mobilee Showcase, featuring the above mentioned artists at Vision Nightclub. On Friday, catch Jesse Rose at Smart Bar or Monolake at the Empty Bottle — either of which is bound to be quality. As if that wasn’t enough to keep most electronic fans broke, Alexander Robotnick performs live at rednofive on Saturday. And just for kicks, here are a couple tracks from some of these artists to get you in the mood to enjoy what Chicago has to offer.

Pan-Pot, “Black Dog” (Jesse Rose remix) [Mobilee]

Exercise One, “Debaya” [Mobilee]

Crumbling mumbles

Rekid, “Next Stop Chicago” (Jesse Rose remix) [Rekids]

Leftfield, “Space Shanty” [Columbia Recs]

Sleeparchive, “Papercup” [Sleeparchive]

March charts (lose your brackets)

In the order they came to my mind, 15 because 10 isn’t nearly enough:

01. Lopazz, “Gimme Gimme” [Get Physical]
02. Junior Boys, “Like a Child” (Carl Craig remix) [Domino USA]
03. Monoroom, “Memory Inc. Part 2” (Gui Boratto remix) [Live Large Recordings]
04. Lee Jones, “There Comes A Time” [Aus Music]
05. TG, “Rhythm Acupuncture” (Martin Buttrich remix) [Four:Twenty Recordings]
06. Ripperton, “A Skylift Upstairs the Sleeping City” [Systematic]
07. Jörg Burger, “Polyform 1” [K2]
08. Marc Romboy vs Chelonis R. Jones, “Helen Cornell” [Systematic]
09. Stephan Bodzin, “Liebe Ist…” [Herzblut Recordings; review forthcoming]
10. Cagney & Lacey, “Your Girl Pukes All Over The Dancefloor” (Jesse Rose ‘Sort Your Missus Out’ remix) [Tendenzen Freier Entfaltung]
11. Beck, “Cell Phone’s Dead” (Ricardo Villalobos Entlebuch remix) [Interscope Records]
12. Oliver Koletzki, “Music From the Heart” [Hell Yeah Recordings]
13. Justice, “D.A.N.C.E.” [Ed Banger Records]
14. John Daly, “Skydive” [Plak Records]
15. Camille, “Ta Douleur” (Al Usher vocal mix) [EMI Recordings (France)]

Sometimes it takes stacks

It seems as though Ripperton isn’t going to let up on releasing quality singles anytime soon. “Skilift Upstairs The Sleeping City,” out on Marc Romboy’s Systematic Recordings, doesn’t stray far from the elements which have gained him so much acclaim. Crafted from an entrancing pathway of rapidly shifting and repeating pads, a climbing and descending vibes arrangement echoing the serenity of an airborn trip over fresh snow, and an electron-infused vapor which crackles contently to itself, “Skilift” is a blissful excursion. For me, it easily ranks among Ripperton’s best and I can’t wait to purchase it.

Ripperton, “Skilift Upstairs The Sleeping City” (purchase @ Juno here)

Sia, “Numb” (Paradise Soul remix)

Heidi vs Riton, “Vejer” (Jesse Rose remix)

Carl Craig, “A Wonderful Life”

Daniel Taylor, “M.O.R.D.” (Loco Dice remix)

Over the weekend Resident Advisor received a much-needed makeover which makes it easier on the eyes, more functional and also easier to navigate. Definitely check that out. Also over the weekend, the folks at French blog jaws tight! made its last post. I’m not sure why, thanks to Babelfish’s wildly inconclusive translation, but they have a new blog going called Get the Curse, which is entirely in French and appears to be completely reviews-based. Hopefully my French readers get something out of it.

My friend DJ Tornado sent me his latest drum ‘n bass mix, which sounds great to me despite my utter ignorance of the genre. You can download that here (March 2007 set); tracklisting is provided there as well.

Silent predators

Jesse Rose, “You’re All Over My Head”

From an early 2006 release on Dubsided that recently found its way onto my desktop, “You’re All Over My Head” follows none of the rules I’ve come to expect from minimal techno. I feel like this expounds on the growing respect for Rose, even at his sloppiest and half-hearted. And on first listen, “thrown together” is the easiest and most dismissive way to describe it. Machinery hiccups, swishing percussion and Rose’s emotionless utterances (“it’s a lot of ____” and “I know”) open the tune, laying a straight path suddenly broken into with a vibrant and destinctly vintage sample (I thought my mp3 player was on the fritz). Of all the songs, Rose chose The Cyrkle’s “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore,” a tune I coincidentally wrote about last year — a safe bet for a selection few would recognize. While chopped up and repasted to fit his fancy, the sample runs longer than most would dare include in a dark, thumping tune like this. It vanishes back into the murk with an anxious little synth progression taking its place. Though The Cyrkle interrupts once more, the rest of the track remains largely the same, leaving listeners a little bewildered. Not an ellegant tune by any stretch of the imagination, but Rose’s choice to scramble his momentum with a bitter-messaged, sugary pop song provides unexpected continuity. This probably only sees use as a DJ tool or headphone track, but “You’re” traffics in ideas as much as grooves.

Les Petits Pilous, “Jolie Fille”

I really wanted to take Tal’s unspoken challenge to write about this tune, but I’m at almost as much of a loss as he was. Les Petits Pilous (Small Cotton Flannels, natch) are a young Boyz Noize band taking the grating electro/rock/rave sound to peaked out heights. Of the songs I can hear easily, “Nice Bird” is the most ambitious and disorienting: To get yourself in the mood, imagine being separated from your friends at a packed rave about 15 minutes after swallowing what you think is e with a desperate desire to reconnect. Rhythmically obtuse, the coarse patterns shift at what feels like odd times and swell in intensity, only to drop listeners without a second thought. “This is how kids perceive rave or something,” Tal guessed, and it seems like that perception is practically no wave — no rave even (Tal’s brilliant combination, see comments), a rip-your-face-off-and-poke-fun-at-it mindset. Much to my surprise and delight, this nu-rave scene is getting more interesting instead of less.

Nightly visitor

Black Devil Disco Club, “On Just Foot”

Carl Craig & Laurent Garnier, “Demented (Or Just Crazy)”

Jesse Rose, “Didn’t I” (Audion mix)

Gennaro Rossi, “Purple Haze”

!!!, “Heart of Hearts”