Just listening to some great stuff by Christian Marclay and I had been listening to the Orb for most of the afternoon and I realised these guys don't actually play conventional instruments (at least on their commercially released recordings). I'm sure not so long ago people noted the same thing about the music of Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream - I guess even electric guitars were considered not 'real' guitars when they surfaced.
So do you consider the likes of Marclay and Alex Paterson (of the Orb) as musicians? I happen to think both are amazing musicians - especially Paterson - I have seen him live and he is an absolute master of sound sculpture - why should the source of the sounds matter? Is dj'ing all that different from playing a mellotron? More to the point is playing a sample on a mellotron keyboard somehow more authentically musical than triggering that same sound via a sampler and thus more 'valid as music and is the performer more of a musician.
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