Another friend of mine in England suggested that with sampling you’re not just sampling the notes and the sounds, but the essence of the recording, you’re somehow using the spirit that’s in there.
If you start getting into quantum physics, there’s really nice stuff about a particle that’s simultaneously in two different locations in space and time. That’s what’s amazing about recording, the tension of a particle existing simultaneously in a studio in 1998 and coming out of your speaker in 2012.
When you layer up samples recorded in different eras and different locations with different people that quantum voodoo is amplified exponentially. I really believe in that, but it’s tricky to explain!