The Great Psychic Outdoors: Lo-Fi Music and Escaping Capitalism

Homemade records, tape-hiss worship, and a penchant for a very peculiar kind of psychedelia have collectively carved a distinct niche in the contemporary musical landscape under the banner of lo-fi. This genreless genre, primarily characterised by its poor recordings and rough sounds, spans everything from the most extreme heavy metal to the sweetest pop ear-candies, and has become a solid presence in our collective sensibility. Yet, it has largely been neglected; this staunch refusal of anything hi-fi and high-tech has often fallen under the radar of the categories we typically use to analyse ourselves and our times.

The Great Psychic Outdoors, a book dedicated to the most interesting and controversial artists within this movement, aims to rectify this injustice and vindicate the revolutionary potential of lo-fi music. It engages with this peculiar genre on its own terms, confronting head-on the contradictions and possibilities of this multi-faceted phenomenon. By examining the aesthetic and conceptual stakes of this sonic craft, The Great Psychic Outdoors reveals what lo-fi tells us about ourselves, our lives under capitalism, and the strange ways we cope with pain, madness, and beauty.