Think Pink Radio

The third album by Katastrophe, “The Worst Amazing,” is out now on 307 Knox Records, and it’s nice to see Rocco Kayiatos expanding his range and palette. He’s always been pretty self-sufficient, with few special guests, self-produced beats, mixing and mastering his own releases. It’s always cool to see the purity of a body of work when it’s done like that: you get an unfiltered view of an artist’s vision. And when you are a fan, that can be ideal. When you are not, it could all the sound the same. “The Worst Amazing” still has only one song with a guest rap (two less than his last record and one more than his first) but the difference is in the sonics. There is a track built on acoustic guitar, dubstep hints, strips of Deltron 3030′s cinematic sweeps and frequent vocal contributions by feminine voices singing hooks (what uP Jenna Riot). The last track is even an electro remix by Sonsfoxy, a welcome 4×4 exit to an otherwise eclectic album. All this and he’s finally enlisted some production help in Shaggy Manatee and easily, this is the best Katastrophe album yet; the big reveal is that collaboration has shown us more of Rocco’s taste: a deceptive oxymoron in the face of singular creative mission. Liz Armstrong once described Katastrophe as “touchy feely,” and yeah he’s still on the expressive side. Recent interviews have him stating that he sometimes considers marketing himself as stealth–it’s the age old question about being an artist first and queer second and the desire to reach people outside of our inner circles. Still, Katas is one of the people behind new trans-masculine print magazine Original Plumbing and is touring, publicizing, facebooking and tweeting about it. That inner conflict, the capital IT for art-making, is right there front and center and that’s what keeps us listening. The exclamation point is that “The Worst Amazing” has found new sounds to keep us dancing, I’m sure Katastrophe wants it like that.

Stream and download a sample track here:

Katastrophe – Tonight