{"product_id":"motorway","title":"Motorway","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Growing up as a kid in 70’s London, I once unearthed an early 60’s proto plastic toy motorway playset at a suburban jumble sale. The cars themselves were missing, but that did not matter. I instantly wanted the set. The road sections which slotted together to form a figure of 8, were bitumen-black and basic. Devoid of decals, signposts or any sort of detail at all, in many ways the assembled track resembled a satisfyingly minimal, mobius strip sculpture. But it was the evocative box artwork I loved the most. An illustration reminiscent of the bright, futuristic world portrayed in the ladybird books of the time showed a broad 4-lane blacktop with a series of identical untarnished cast concrete overpasses cutting through the rolling green landscape. Down the left-hand side of the box in bright yellow - the single word Motorway in block capitals. The box art spoke of unknown journeys, of the safe efficient expediency and hypnotic, repetitive sights and sounds of the major arterial road.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe playset artwork must have resonated deeply as the same sensations unexpectedly resurfaced a decade or so later when I first encountered Kraftwerk’s seminal Gesamtkunstwerk ‘Autobahn’. Both the artwork and the recording are perfect of course and need no further discussion here. The record oozes what seemed unattainable and romantic; a vision of far-off European cities defining the future through design and speed.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA third epiphany occurred reading J.G. Ballard’s classic novel ‘Concrete Island’; in which a blown tyre sends architect Robert Maitland’s Jaguar plunging down an embankment, ending up on a patch of wasteland hemmed in by three roads. Injured and dazed, Maitland is stranded, unable to attract the attention of drivers above, unable to find a way out. Through Ballard’s words, I came to understand that there were similarities in the uncanny disconnect these non-places evoke the world over: Motorways are spaces we know intimately but will also never set foot on. The ‘no-man’s land’ we see between motorway lanes and intersections are familiar, but unreachable. We pass them regularly, but do not notice them in detail.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCrashing onto the island, Maitland becomes a ‘no-man’; he enters a void and becomes invisible himself.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI wanted to make a record which somehow brought together and reflected these influences and the feelings they evoke in me. And which paid unabashed homage to the sources. This record Motorway is it. I hope you enjoy the journey.\"\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Castles in Space","offers":[{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50486514286923,"sku":"2028220","price":26.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Motorway_a53152aa_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727610559","url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/de\/products\/motorway","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}