Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

We place our trust and hands in the ability to connect with others, to form friendships, to have a group of people in our lives that wish only good things and warm thoughts for us; that we might be able to be part of their journey, their passage into the world beyond the tightly bound timetable of hellos and goodbyes.

That trust is sacrosanct, often dipped in sadness and regret, but so fulfilling when the connection is a voyage of discovery together, and even when we cannot be in the same room, when we cannot meet up because of circumstances and dictations of the world, and even if we must find such simple pleasures and attachments in a part time virtual setting, then escape and exploration are still viable, still to be undertook.

For Midland Railway and their brand new single, The Pokemon Adventure, what they place before the listener is a reminder of the ache of solitude that is unavoidable for some, that we must, in all good conscious, recognise the ones who find their world shrunk to the level of only being placed within the realms of the computer, of the mercy of companionship of the terabyte, and bring them back into the world surrounding us. Only with such persuasion to view humanity as a beautiful and flawed machine, will the foray into the virtual world be one of colourful pastime and not the complete immersion into losing the way home.

The sound and imagery that Midland Railway combine on the song is persuasive, ingenious, and one that catches the ear as well as the mind in how we view a realm that many of us have found to be too enticing to leave, after all who would want to leave paradise when nothing painful can hurt you there, where the rigours of human contact are reduced to pixels and the disembodied voice.

In The Pokemon Adventure, Midland Railway have opened up a new way to enjoy their music, a more framed by the abstract, and one that holds the belief of the musicianship together firmly.

Ian D. Hall