Frostower – Indifference

11.7.19 by Ryan Masteller

I GUESS Frostower is a literal tower of frost, kind of like that one Mario Party minigame where you have to grind ice to make a taller snow pile. But the name probably to its detriment reminds me of Zap Rowsdower, the “Final Sacrifice” hero who wondered if there was beer on the sun. And since we all know that there is no beer on the sun in reality, we are left to shrug and get back to our lives. In the end, it’s all a matter of “Indifference.” 

Literally.

Frostower is not a literal tower of frost, just an icy electronic composer content to push glaciers through landscapes and watch the weight crush the surface of the earth, leaving irreparable changes in its path. “Indifference” is the outward mindset toward those changes. How can something as big and powerful as a glacier have any sort of regard for the terrain it’s plowing? It just doesn’t. And Frostower gets it, because Frostower doesn’t have time to worry about whatever Frostower is plowing over either. Frostower simply moves through space, and if something is in the way, it gets obliterated. Easy peasy.

“Indifference” also marks the plight of the solitary composer, locked behind closed doors and creating in order to stave off the gathering darkness of societal obligations. Just let Frostower be Frostower! Right? “Indifference” allows the coexistence of gritty ambience and beat-tape reveries, an antisocial and inward-facing study of the psyche. What were once pent-up frustrations are now unleashed in a torrent of tone and timbre, but not in such a rushing-on of feeling and emotion that we’re in weird, uncharted territory; we’re just left to stew with our ennui and angst. Sometimes that’s all we need to get off on music.

So crack a cold one on the surface of Sol (oh shoot, it’s real!) and strap in for the mildly disruptive (but fully enjoyable) “Indifference” on Mystic Timbre.