{"title":"MIDI Janitor","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"holy-to-dogs-2","title":"Holy To Dogs","description":"\u003cp\u003eUsing only a scavenged Midi keyboard and sounds plundered from a wide swath of archaic media (90’s sampler CDs, 80s VHS docs, 70s student films) musician Jonathan Orr creates startlingly accomplished slabs of thick, lo-fi electro that shimmer and pounce like nothing else on the Vancouver scene. As on his previous release (2023's \u003ci\u003eBulk Order\u003c\/i\u003e) the spiritual template here is the early unreleased tapes of Scotland’s Boards of Canada, particularly the twin holy grails of\u003ci\u003e A Few Old Tunes Vol 1 \u0026amp; II,\u003c\/i\u003e but this time around things feel noticeably weirder and more destabilized, as if that template were cracking apart under the weight of older, less definable influences. The title of the album is taken from the Gospel According to Thomas: “Give not that which is holy to dogs, in case they throw it onto the dunghill.” Reading the text on the verge of sleep, Orr had mistakenly understood it as pertaining not to ‘holy things,' but instead to things which were specifically ‘holy to dogs.’ What would such things be? Orr pictured a shrine of objects not valued by the world; garbage, refuse, decay, the discarded. Things forgotten or only half-remembered, like the rusted bones of ancient cities or the clips of dead media entombed on his hard drive. \u003ci\u003eHoly to\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eDogs\u003c\/i\u003e charts a weaving course through this narcoleptic vision, from the bright epiphany of ‘Petroglyph Park’ to the blackened repetition of ‘Roman Concrete’, the eerie momentum of ‘Split Foot,’ and the rhythmic hypnosis of ‘Far Speak’; each track building on the last in a series of audio snapshots of lost worlds, forgotten rituals, and discarded histories. An absolutely essential release from one of Vancouver’s brightest (and darkest) lights.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"We Are Busy Bodies","offers":[{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50940059451723,"sku":"2228954","price":33.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/201374998879_6daad930_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1733464388"},{"product_id":"closed-for-the-festival","title":"Closed For The Festival","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cem\u003eClosed For The Festival\u003c\/em\u003e is MIDI Janitor’s fourth full-length and is the follow-up to the Holy To Dogs LP, which was originally released on cassette in 2024 on legendary Vancouver tape label Hotham Sound and then in a vinyl edition by Toronto’s We Are Busy Bodies. The Midi Janitor’s new album, \u003cem\u003eClosed For The Festival\u003c\/em\u003e, is a biography of Jonathan Orr’s shadow self. Born from memories of his childhood spent wandering rural Ireland in Ballymore, Donegal on his grandmother’s Christian commune, \u003cem\u003eClosed For The Festival\u003c\/em\u003e masterfully straddles the line between warped joy and sinister naivety. As Orr states, “the songs are always trying to get to that moment of taking your hand and walking you into the woods on a pretty spring afternoon and then abandoning you there to figure out ‘how do I get out of here??’” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cem\u003eClosed For The Festival\u003c\/em\u003e recalls the skewed electronica of Boards Of Canada, the dusted syncopations of Heathered Pearls, and the long-buried treasures uncovered by the Sublime Frequencies label, but is never willfully nostalgic in nature - each track is an incantation in honour of ‘thin places’, where the presence of an eternal moment seeps into the present moment - the uncanny feeling of which has followed The Midi Janitor throughout his life and creative work. - Steve Ramsay: Young Galaxy, Stars\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"We Are Busy Bodies","offers":[{"title":"LP - Black","offer_id":56787461865803,"sku":"R5419-6899","price":32.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/unnamed-2026-03-13T092239.662.jpg?v=1773393768"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/collections\/midi-janitor.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}