Various - Motorway City: The Golden Age of Car Travel 1966-1982 - 2 LP import

     MOTORWAY CITY is a superb, driving-based collection of library music. The tracks on this album were all written between the mid-60s and the early 80s to hymn car travel, back when the petrol-operated motor car was seen as the transport mode of the future, when motorways were new and thrilling. It was car travel’s golden age.
     The tracks are highly collectable rarities from the libraries of De Wolfe, Chappell and Hudson. It has been compiled by Bob Stanley of Saint Etienne who has also written the informative sleevenotes. It stretches from mod movers to proto-ambient, something for every car journey.
      Library music soundtracked the many short films that extolled the virtues of TopTray restaurant at Watford Gap or the comfortable leather seats in an Alpine Sunbeam. These tunes illuminated the joys of motor travel, and were given titles such as ‘Fast Lane’, ‘Super City’ and ‘Clearway’.
      Many of these tracks seem time specific. The sun peeks over the horizon for Basil Kirchin’s ‘Through New Territory’; Reg Tilsley’s ‘Hold The Road’ is so bright at midday that you’ll need to wear shades to stop the sun getting in your eyes; John Fiddy’s ‘City Skyline’ has to be seen (and heard) at dusk.
     Ex-Soft Machine Karl Jenkins provides the tense ‘Wheeling’, and Peter Reno’s thunderous ‘Convoy’ shifts the mood up a gear. Maybe you should risk nudging the speed up, 80-plus, to the soundtrack of Alan Hawkshaw’s ‘Fuel Injection’ or Simon Park’s mellow-but-dynamic ‘Big Road’.
     Beautifully packaged in a gatefold sleeve, MOTORWAY CITY could be the soundtrack to your summer holiday.

Wire Wheels - International Studio Orchestra
On The Move - Johnny Hawksworth
Motorway - Cliff Johns
Through New Territory - Basil Kirchin
Super-Travel - James Clark
Driving Force - Herbert Chappell
Town Beat - Jack Trombey
Hold The Road - Reg Tilsley
Convoy - Peter Reno
Motordown - John Scott
Soul City Drive - Soul City Orchestra
Big Road - Simon Park
Wheeling - Karl Jenkins
Nevada Junction - Steve Gray
Highway Song - The Cool
Silver Thrust - Peter Reno
Lorry Load - Frank McDonald
Fast Lane - Mike Gillingham & Roy Stone
Walk the White Line - Peter Reno, Reg Tilsley
Fuel Injection - Alan Hawkshaw
Super City - John Fiddy
Take a Break - Reg Tilsley
Clearway - Frank Ricotti
Soft Throttle - Alan Hawkshaw
Night Moves - Patchwork
City Skyline - John Fiddy
Freeway - Roger Webb
Hometown - Alan Parker