mr.arrison wrote:scott wrote:HEY, WAIT, ANYBODY EVER SEEN MISSION OF BURMA LIVE? THE STUFF BOB WESTON DOES WITH THE TAPE LOOPS, WHILE SOUNDING AWESOME, IS TOTALLY NON-CREATIVE, NON-MUSICAL, IT'S NOT AN INSTRUMENT.
What Weston does in MOB is a part of the overall experience. What Weston is doing wouldn't exist without MOB hitting the notes first, so this isn't really the best argument. He's using the tape deck that records them playing and manipulates accordingly. Not much different than a mellotron (with the exception of no keys..)
The point is, manipulation of source material that you personally did not generate, this can be a great thing, and can be "musical" and the machine used for manipulation can certainly be deemed an "instrument".
Here's another example... the douchebag in Rage Against The Machine, when he scratches his pick against his roundwound strings to make a sound that deliberately simulates the sound made by a DJ scratching a record, when he does that, does his guitar cease to be an instrument? Of course not. But using what
appears to be zom-zom's "logic", if you were to scratch a pick against strings to make that sound, you are using an instrument, but if you produce virtually the same sound by scratching a record, that's not an instrument.
This is all just an exercise in silliness, isn't it?
The bottom line is, who gives a fuck about anything, right? Let's just all not give a fuck.