There are of course qualitative drawbacks to self-releasing. Artists tend to release before they‘ve hit their stride, they can be discouragingly prolific and impulsive, and they may not know when to edit themselves. And, putting the wilder forms of creative relativism to one side, their work can often suffer from poor technique: dodgy mixing or mastering, for example, or what I call „timestretchmarks.“ These were all precisely the sorts of problems that ‘80s indie reviewers complained about when faced with home-recorded cassettes. But the problem lies with what „good music“ is, and whether you‘d rather have „good“ music or new and interesting music. Perhaps for many listeners they‘re the same thing. But musical invention comes from places that don‘t have excessive quality control, from accident and necessity rather than pre-conceived ideas of superior technique. „Good music,“ since it lives and dies through comparison to these pre-established norms, won‘t suit those hungering for another world.