Raft of Trash is a generative music project exploring the sounds of systems using the natural rhythms of environmental dialogue in the world-building game SimCity 3000. It is a collaboration between sound artists/musicians Andrew PM Hunt (aka Dialect) and JC Leisure, and designer Thom Isom. Their work has been supported by The Wire, Tiny Mix Tapes, NTS and others. JC Leisure was profiled in The Wire earlier this year, and Dialect's forthcoming solo album will be announced very shortly.
Like the group's early EPs, their debut album Likeness on the Edge of Town showcases the breadth of possibilities emerging from their unique process. Whilst playing Simcity 3000, the in-built sound effects of the game are converted and repurposed into MIDI data which is then fed to Hunt and Leisure's synths and samplers in real time. The resulting soundscape, imprinted with the dynamics of a simulated environment is then augmented with live guitar and spoken word to create an uncanny collage of wild synthesis, experimental narrative and bending, viscous guitar. Musically, the record remains in largely abstract territory. Synths sprawl, crawl and fly above a sonic bed of creaks, ripples and bleeps; nothing is at it seems. This ambiguous relationship between the organic and the synthetic further highlights the themes explored by the group.