Library Catalog Music Series: Music for Hypnotized Minds

With his song “Windowdipper,” Jib Kidder — aka Sean Schuster-Craig — made Windows operating system alert sounds into a booty bass anthem rump-shaking enough to appear on So You Think You Can Dance. On Music for Hypnotized Minds, his installment in Asthmatic Kitty's Library Catalog Music Series, Schuster-Craig has the label’s entire catalog at his sampling disposal, and he transforms it into abstract mosaics that are true to his aesthetic as well as Asthmatic Kitty's. He does far more than just juxtaposing a snippet of a Sufjan Stevens song here with a bit of a Rafter track there. Instead, he remixes and reconfigures his source material so deftly that each piece feels seamless and organic (it probably helps that the album’s credits are purposefully vague, making it harder to trace the lines of his collages). In keeping with the series’ library music concept, these tracks are more evocative than distinct, but the wit of “Windowdipper” and the rest of All on Y’all is evident throughout, whether in “Reflection”'s undulating guitars, which warp like funhouse mirrors, or “Suspension 3”'s slow-motion fusion of lounge and breakbeats. At once soothing background music and fascinating active listening, Music for Hypnotized Minds shows just how versatile and engaging Jib Kidder's approach is.