The Tower · Tin Can Audio

Introducing: catskull (+ soundtrack announcement)

December 19, 2025·26 min·2 clips

A teenager in Singapore keeps a box of shame under his bed — newspaper headlines about deaths, a fraying rope tied into a noose when he cannot sleep.

The episode begins with a brief announcement from Tin Can Audio about the release of The Tower finale soundtrack on Bandcamp, followed by a recommendation for Catskull, an audio drama by Andas Productions — the team behind Temujin and DC's Batman audio series. Catskull is described as a neo-noir thriller set in Singapore, adapted from an award-winning novel by Mile Yantay. Andas Productions provides an extensive content warning before the episode begins, noting themes of violence, racial insensitivity, abuse of migrant workers, sexual assault, self-harm, and pedophilia. The Catskull first episode then begins with Ram, the narrator, describing a box he keeps under his bed. The box contains newspaper clippings about deaths, a fraying rope he uses to tie into a noose when he cannot sleep, a knife he holds when the rope fails, and a book of scribblings cataloguing impulses he cannot otherwise release. Ram introduces Cass, his childhood friend from the same neighborhood, who now wears a thick navy sweater in tropical Singapore heat, ostensibly to cover her arms. He traces her history: a brilliant student by accident, top of her literature class, whose home deteriorated as her mother began taking sleeping pills and her father became controlling and punishing. Ram describes their daily rituals — walking together after school, eating at the KFC in Siglap where Cass never eats, with Ram surviving on $30 a week while Cass receives $800 Chinese New Year ang paos from her aunt. Ram's inner life is marked by racial microaggressions he cannot speak: a classmate jokes that the South Asian security guard must be his uncle, and Ram connects that moment to the knot in his body he imagines snapping when he ties the noose. During Thursday MMA training, Ram spars with Matthew, a former football captain with long hair the discipline master never corrects. A training partner named Xia Yi cuts Cass's arm with untrimmed fingernails. Ram rushes across the gym. As the coach cleans the wound, Ram sees that among the small cut sit rows of older scars in different shades across Cass's arms — all the way up. The coach treats only the new cut. The episode ends as Ram processes what he has seen, and a closing reflection on his name — Rama, a great hero his parents named him after and whose story he has never read.

As heard by us

A final studio sign-off that pairs a Bandcamp score release with a sharp Catskull recommendation.

The Tower closes out its final studio sendoff with two clean beats: the Bandcamp release of the finale score, and a strong introduction to Catskull as a new audio drama thriller.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

For a final studio stop that also points you to a Singapore neo-noir, start here.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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