William Gibson - "God's Little Toys" and his idea of "recombinant"

This article is in response to this: (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.07/gibson.html).

This is not my introduction to Mr. Gibson as I read Neuromancer - a weird sci-fi novel, which I recommend, a number of years ago. I first found it interesting that he mentions William S. Burroughs, as it seemed to me that Gibson sounds a little like a mix between the latter and Hunter S. Thompson (not a bad thing). He begins talking about what he calls a "recombinant," that is, a project that uses bits and pieces of other's material and puts it together in a new innovative collaboration. I knew I'd heard the term "recombinant" before, and I thought it something to with biology. A quick search on dictionary.com proved my hypothesis correct. A recombinant is a "cell or organism whose genetic complement results from recombination" or genetic material can be recombinant when it results from new combinations of other genetic material, (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/recombinant). However when you look at the definition, it is clear why Gibson is borrowing (ha) this word to define some sort of cut-up/mash-up remix project. What I found to be particularly interesting is the fact that I just happen to know of a "project" that fits his example almost exactly. It also just so happens that project was founded and is operated by yours truly. My project is called Algiz BC, (http://www.myspace.com/algiztribe) and it is definitely a good example example of what Gibson meant by "recombinant." With my project I take samples from different songs, movies, and field recordings and combine them together to make something entirely new and different than they were separately. What makes it different from a typical remix or a DJ physically mixing two records together? I only take small samples and clips from each of my sources and I use a lot of them - there are no loops, beats, etc. thrown in to carry the compositions, at any given time you are hearing anywhere between 1 to 8 different tracks of audio samples overlapping or fading into each other. Both of the compositions I have created so far (two others are currently in the works) are very long (about nine minutes and fourteen minutes respectively) and are very ambient in their overall structure and feel. The idea behind this project is simple - I just took simple samples from songs and movies that I liked and mixed them into each other; while distorting some of them to make them sound stranger than they did before, in order to create something completely new. However, for me, I tend to think that the most interesting aspect of the project is that is neither guitar or beat (read: bass) driven and furthermore it employs the usage of a number of folk instruments including flutes, bagpipes, percussion, mouth harp, etc. I made a fairly strict conscious decision not to use guitar at all, because to put it quite plainly - I am bored with rock-based, guitar-driven music. There are not enough people doing anything experimental and strange enough to keep my attention any longer. I love weird psychedelic rock/proto-heavy metal, but I've never heard anything recent that's cooler than German Oak's self-titled album from 1972. When I said the project wasn't bass driven I didn't mean it didn't involve the use of electronic influence and samples - in fact, I embrace them. The genre itself is constantly evolving and experimenting - reinventing itself - this is the same with Algiz - but enough, if you are interested, go listen to my project.