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.