Toyota Corolla E20 – 1974 -79…Oh, wait…..

Ha Ha! I’m not going to hate though.  I think it’s cool a mag like Fast Car has given the Retro Scene some coverage; nothing wrong with widening your horizons.  Plus the F6 MK4 and WRX are in there so, you know, it’s all good.

There’s nothing but hope to start with. Then there are those moments of extreme happiness. Then it’s all gone. There goes the cycle. Not in the mood to comment much. Just lay back and enjoy the song. It’s a song by Tracy Chapman, and there’s something about her voice. Something beautiful. Goodbye and goodnight!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl6yilkU1LI

You got a fast car
I want a ticket to anywhere
Maybe we make a deal
Maybe together we can get somewhere

Anyplace is better
Starting from zero got nothing to lose
Maybe we’ll make something
But me myself I got nothing to prove

You got a fast car
And I got a plan to get us out of here
I been working at the convenience store
Managed to save just a little bit of money
We won’t have to drive too far
Just ‘cross the border and into the city
You and I can both get jobs
And finally see what it means to be living

You see my old man’s got a problem
He live with the bottle that’s the way it is
He says his body’s too old for working
I say his body’s too young to look like his
My mama went off and left him
She wanted more from life than he could give
I said somebody’s got to take care of him
So I quit school and that’s what I did

You got a fast car
But is it fast enough so we can fly away
We gotta make a decision
We leave tonight or live and die this way

I remember we were driving driving in your car
The speed so fast I felt like I was drunk
City lights lay out before us
And your arm felt nice wrapped ’round my shoulder
And I had a feeling that I belonged
And I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone

You got a fast car
And we go cruising to entertain ourselves
You still ain’t got a job
And I work in a market as a checkout girl
I know things will get better
You’ll find work and I’ll get promoted
We’ll move out of the shelter
Buy a big house and live in the suburbs
You got a fast car
And I got a job that pays all our bills
You stay out drinking late at the bar
See more of your friends than you do of your kids
I’d always hoped for better
Thought maybe together you and me would find it
I got no plans I ain’t going nowhere
So take your fast car and keep on driving

You got a fast car
But is it fast enough so you can fly away
You gotta make a decision
You leave tonight or live and die this way

-*Poppins & TwinkleToes*

PAST<FUTURE is Amuro Namie’s 8th album and it was released on December 16th, 2009. It reached #1 on the Oricon Weekly Charts and has sold 330,742 copies.

♠Tracklisting♠

1. FAST CAR♠♠♠♠
2. COPY THAT
3. LOVE GAME
4. Bad Habit
5. Steal my Night
6. FIRST TIMER feat. DOBERMAN INC♠♠♠
7. WILD♠♠♠♠♠
8. Dr.♠♠
9. Shut Up
10. MY LOVE♠
11. The Meaning Of Us
12. Defend Love

When first stepping into Namie’s latest album, I was pretty sure what I was going to expect. The only single prior to this release, WILD / Dr. was actually a very accurate sample of what sound she was going with this time around and that is a very synth driven, futuristic sounding album with an overuse of the manipulation her voice went through for WILD, and even then brought to the next level.

The album kicks off with a bang with FAST CAR, a poppy upbeat tune with a repeating brass line that just sounds so slick and fancy but is non-the-less the only song of that sound of the album, properly portraying the “PAST” part of the album, with everything else except maybe COPY THAT(due to its retro instrumental and almost surfer music inspiration, though it suffers from repetitiveness and a disastrous ending) sounding “futuristic”.

A lot of the songs on the album are very good but I had a very big problem when first listening to the album. Many of the ten new tracks just sounded painfully messy. There was really only one thing to blame for this and it was Namie’s voice. The way her voice is manipulated and layered is something the listener would have to cope with if they plan to listen to any of this album(and possibly her future releases) but they aren’t that tough to grow accustomed with, no matter how monotone she sounds. The real problem though it the way her voice is layered in like 500 levels. My biggest complaint would go to FIRST TIME in which she featured with DOBERMAN INC. I recall just absolutely hating the chorus due to how many layers of Namie’s voice you would hear in the same three seconds. I’ve grown to accept it now however as the song is very catchy, though would have been a lot better without the extensive rapping bit.

Though the album as a whole is very similar, it doesn’t suffer from sounding all exactly the same. Though all similar in styles, it’s the smaller things that set each track apart.  For example, The Meaning Of Us is a gentle piano ballad which presents to use Namie’s naked and untouched voice while songs like Shut Up and MY LOVE represent what a Namie-style rock song would sound like(former) and the latter her signature “Hip-Pop” style reminiscent of her PLAY era music.

Bad Habit also does a good job of standing out with its darker mood, although it’s pretty standard when compared to the other songs. Another song I’ve seen receiving a lot of hate is Steal my Night, which I actually really enjoy due to Namie’s faster singing and Arabian-style instrumental. We also can’t forget about the highly anticipated Defend Love, which while an enjoyable song in its own way, it  disappointed me overall, although that slower, piano part before the final part of the song is definitely the highlight and climax of the song.

Compared to her prior album release PLAY, I think that Namie definitely delivered to her fans, although she took a slightly higher risk this time by providing more variety than the other more Hip-Pop album which absolutely lacked ballads(though this album only has one). With that risk also came come criticism to the album. To me, her vocals, repetitiveness, and messy arranging were the only true downfall of the album but I must praise Namie for releasing such a high quality, neatly packed album with nice variety and memorable hooks.

♠Overall Rating♠

So I gave myself some time to fully dissect and fully truly listen to Namie Amuro’s new album PAST < FUTURE. I’ve had the album since Saturday night when I discovered that a downloadable rar file was floating around in the cybernetic world and I got it immediately. After having listened to the album thoroughly I shall now share my thoughts.

BTW> My ratings aren’t based on every single piece of music as a whole, it’s based on what is on the album, for example, the best thing on the album will be a 5 while the worst will be a 1.

FAST CAR - Ok so at first listen I wasn’t hooked at all. I actually thought ‘Wow what is this sh_t? WTF Namie?’ But the more I listened to it, because I couldn’t stop watching the PV XD, the more I liked it. Can I just say that the song goes SO well with the PVon further retrospection? The song has this lazy drawl to it almost, almost as if you’re drunk but too tired to do anything like at the end of a sophisticated party almost, a perfect represenation of French bourgeosie. The song almost screams drunken debauchery everytime I hear it now, but in a Frenchy elegant way lol.

Rating: 3.5/5

COPY THAT – I don’t like this song, ugh, it’s just annoying. The opening is so California beach and dum-dum-dum oohhh. Just annoying. I’m not liking her voice here either. It’s not the worst song on the album but this just really grates on my nerves. I think its just me though because a lot of Namie fans seem to be enjoying this song.

RATING: 2/5

  LOVE GAME – This is the song that restored my faith in Namie after the FAST CAR PV (back when I still didn’t like it) and The Meaning of Us PV practically killed my excitment for her album. Granted the song isn’t that amazing but I liked it at first listen and I love the flow of the verses and the way the ‘yeah’ is a computer sound. My only gripe is the chorus, it doesn’t flow as well as a chorus should but other than that this is one of the stand outs. The PV is absoloutely amazing though.

RATING: 4

Bad Habit – I like how the song starts out, it has a very strong beat behind it and I love the way Namie says ‘Bad Habit’, my fave part is definitely is in the middle with her singing ‘I can still win’ (I think that’s what she said anyway lol) and then it picks up after that again. It took me a listen or two to get into it but after you do it’s wonderful and very fun.

RATING: 4

Steal my Night – I really like the fast guitar strings inserted throughout the song but other than that there’s nothing really special about this song, its not bad but its not mentionable, it’s one of the songs you kinda skip.

RATING: 2.5 (for not standing out)

Namie’s looking like a FIRST TIMER right here lol, sorry couldn’t resist.

FIRST TIMER feat. DOBERMAN INC. - Starts off with great potential, but it somehow gets muddled right before we get to the chorus. I love the chorus where she sings “First timer….higher…” Not a fan of the chants though. What frustrates me about this song is that it would have been so good if some of the verses hadn’t been muddled and she just sang it the way she did in the chorus throughout much of the song instead of just suddenly breaking off into chants and rapping and ugh. Just frustrating.

RATING: 3.5

WILD - Everyone and their grandma knows this song is the shizbomb man! An amazing flow with a great addictive chorus, and I’ve listened to it more than 125 times and I’m still not sick of it. The PV isn’t aas good considering that she must have just been bored or tired filming, maybe both.

RATING: 5

Dr. – I like the song a lot, it has an interesting pacing to it and it has a lot of tone shifts which I know some people didn’t like but I actually enjoyed them, especially the bridge from 4:13 to 4:40, but I do have some gripes with the song, the chanting and the repetetive nature of the verses. I also don’t like the overly electronic sounds to this song for some reason even though I know they’re kind of neccessary for the storyline of the song.

RATING: 3.5

Shut Up - My favorite of the 10 new songs on the album! I’m not even gonna go into detail about this because the song deserves to be listened to not spoken about <3.

RATING: 4.5

MY LOVE – It has definitely grown on me, I used to not like it as much but I never disliked it as much as I disliked COPY THAT. I really like the falsetto in her voice that she uses but I don’t like the constant repetition of “LOVE LOVE LOVE” in echoes as it fades out but I really like the verses and the inserts in between them.

RATING: 3

The Meaning of Us – Not an epic ballad a little boring at first listen if anything but it’s definitely a grower. The gentle piano accompaniment really lends to the song, it’s very sweet and gentle, it gives the song a lullaby type quality. The climax around 3:06 to 3:16 is quite pleasing. The PV is cute as well simply because Namie is so pretty!

RATING: 3

Defend Love – This is a unique song to say the least, it starts off almost like a video game in 80s theme song would but the pacing gets a lot faster as the song advances. Apparently it’s a continuation to Dr. it makes sense to me now because they sound like cousins, with Dr. being the more obviously computerized one.  I thought this would be a ballad but it’s quite upbeat and I don’t know how else to describe it but unique and very original. I LOVE the chanting from 2:24 to 2:34 and I love the bridge from 2:50 to 3:07 (I don’t know if the timing in the PV below is the same as in the mp3 though). The only thing that threw me off about the song are the anticlimaxes throughout the song (it actually made me skip the song! So don’t let it fool you) but I think that was intentional so when you do get to the climax it seems so much more special. A great way to end the album and a great continuation to Dr.

RATING: 4.5

Has anyone else noticed her smooth transition from the R&B and Hip-Pop (a la PLAY) to her now strictly electro-pop dance album that is PAST < FUTURE? Personally I prefer her in this era following PLAY, not that I didn’t like PLAY but her in electro-pop just seems to work more.

A point of her album that I must commend her on are the smooth transitions between songs, a lot of artists don’t seem to notice, but it DOES matter. Imagine listening to a super hard rock song and then a sweet love song comes on afterwards?? It totally throws off the mood and you don’t appreciate the love song as much as your ears are still geared towards the hard rock sounds.

So how did the Queen of Hip-Pop do?

OVERALL RATING: 3.6

Congrats Namie, you have more to celebrate as well since your album came in at #1 on the Oricon daily charts with an impressive 112,213 copies sold on its first day out!!

Credits to: Namienewsnetwork.blogspot.com and asianfanatics.com

In love with fast cars

Aaron Gamble might have every boy’s dream occupation as a Ferrari technician but the icing on the cake is being one of the top 10 in the world.

The Pakuranga resident has just got back from Italy after being among the world’s elite competing for the title of Ferrari technician of the year.

An online theory test offered the chance for technicians worldwide to vie for a place in the coveted competition.

The top 10 performers were given flights to Italy to compete in further theory and practical tests to find the best of the best.

Mr Gamble was the only New Zealander selected for the competition that has been held for the past three years.

He says he was “pretty nervous” in the lead-up to the event and tried to get in as much study as possible in preparation.

He was also enthusiastic about meeting the Formula One team.

Mr Gamble says the competition involved a lot of full-on days, but he found he got used to the
pressure.

He says it was “pretty humbling and a big rush” to be among the elite of the industry.

A highlight was meeting other people with the same passion for cars and further improving on his ability to diagnose problems quickly.

He got an exclusive look at a new Ferrari that comes on to the market next year.

Diagnosing problems is done by analysing information provided by the car’s many computers.

Mr Gamble has been working in the automotive industry for about 18 years and says he enjoys the problem-solving aspects of the job.

While many can only look on with admiration at a $1.8 million car, Mr Gamble gets to put the high-end vehicles through their paces during test drives.

The constantly-evolving technology means he needs to keep up-to-date with the now predominantly computer-based diagnostic methods.

Mr Gamble says he has his sights set on making it to the competition again in the future.

While Mr Gamble narrowly missed out on a top three place, he says it was a good feeling to be representing his country on the world stage.

So the promo video for Namie Amuro’s “LOVE GAME” was posted on facebook either yesterday or the day before and it took a few listens before I was able to fully appreciate it. Despite my seeming inability to learn another language, I have a weird affinity for music in languages I don’t understand. And if I didn’t like it at first, somehow it grows on me.

For the most part, I’m liking the dance-pop trend going on in the music industry, being that my favorite music genre is electronica. The genre for Namie’s upcoming album, “PAST<FUTURE,” out 2009.12.16, fuses pop, R&B, and techno for a fairly solid (or at least, based on the singles) contemporary club sound.

安室奈美恵 – PAST<FUTURE
2009.12.16
CD & CD+DVD format
avex trax
Japanese

01. FAST CAR
02. COPY THAT
03. LOVE GAME
04. Bad Habit
05. Steal my Night
06. FIRST TIMER | feat. DOBERMAN INC
07. WILD
08. Dr.
09. Shut Up
10. MY LOVE
11. The Meaning Of Us
12. Defend Love

I’m hoping that this album won’t be a let-down, seeing that I have been deleting a ton of music from my laptop as of lately. There have been too many albums with only a few good songs coupled with album-filler-songs. Hopefully “PAST<FUTURE” isn’t one of them. It looks promising. Video previews below.

安室奈美恵 – “The Meaning of Us” PV

安室奈美恵 – “FAST CAR” PV

安室奈美恵 – “LOVE GAME” PV

安室奈美恵 – “COPY THAT” Vidal Sassoon CM

安室奈美恵 – “MY LOVE” Vidal Sassoon CM

安室奈美恵 – “Dr.” Vidal Sassoon CM

安室奈美恵 – “WILD” PV

Amuro Namie released new PVs. Both are good and recomended. Both PVs are HD and HQ (low res versions are also available).

Seems HD era is realy started as we receive more and more HD PVs. That’s great! I added new tag 1080p, so You can easy find HQ-HD ones.

Check:

Amuro Namie – FAST CAR (1440×1080 MPEG2 M-ON! HD).mpg

Amuro Namie – The Meaning of Us (HD).avi

I am artsy now.

But the ambient pads indeed are fin! Finally. I finished the last two families of keys today…one of which is called ‘Hatred.’ Because it consists of Gb, Ab, and Db. The other family is just Bb and F, which is decent enough. But Gb, Ab, and Db…that’s 6 flats, 4 flats, and 5 flats respectively…these are the keys your keyboardist will shoot you for. I say keyboardists, and not guitarists, because we’re usually angry if it’s anything except for Em blues. I actually thought about not recording the last 3, so that perhaps worship leaders would look for the Ab pad, not find it, and go, ‘Ah well. We’ll just do it in G.’ Or A. Either one. Please. I was going to do my part to eradicate those three keys from the existence of life; but alas…my fear of the ‘just learn your scales!’ crowd got the better of me. Actually, it was the knowledge that U2 tunes their guitars a half step down for most of their songs live; which then bred the of course quite plausible hope that when Edge is surfing the internet looking for backup Vox’s, he’ll come across my Db pad, and it will become an integral part of ‘Streets’ live. And there will be much rejoicing.

Anyway, the ambient pad download link is right up at the top of the site. Or, here. Keep checking back, as now that the 12 keys of base pads are finished, I’m going to start working on some multiple track ones that can stand alone as actual pieces, as opposed to just background sound. I’m not exactly sure how that will be useful…just that it sounds fun to do.

And speaking of…nope. This has nothing to do with anything…that is, if you want to call extreme musical and poetic gorgeousness nothing. This is one of those songs that sounds like it’s just always existed, and for some reason, she was the one who found it.

Splendid.
Karl.

Os dejo 4 de las nuevas canciones del nuevo album de Namie. Estan todas en HQ y no son radio rips. FAST CAR es la mejor <3

01 FAST CAR
02 COPY THAT
10 MY LOVE
11 The Meaning Of Us

Descargar

Y el PV para FAST CAR salió ayer.

¡Simplemente WOW!

La canción es perfecta, la escenografía super currada, el vestuario impresionante y la coreografía está muy currada. ¡Que ganas de que salga ya completo!

¡Comentar!

¡Comentar no lleva ni medio minuto!

Namie Amuro’s comeback album is going to be released on the 16th of December, and the album’s called Past < Future! There’s gonna be 12 tracks on it. The MV for one of the tracks, ‘Meaning of Us’ was released today =D It’s a really pretty ballad track, and as usual, she looks gorgeous. And…another MV was also released! The song’s called ‘FAST CAR’ and it’s an upbeat track. Very Namie Amuro style song, and the outfits are very interesting. They seem to be Lolita style clothing. She looks very pretty; like a doll in these outfits! The setting is rly cool too.

Meaning of Us

FAST CAR

Info about the album under the cut.

Anyway as I said before, there’s 12 tracks for the album. Here’s the tracklist…
01.FAST CAR
02.COPY THAT
03.LOVE GAME
04.Bad Habit
05.Steal my Night
06.FIRST TIMER feat.DOBERMAN INC
07.WILD
08.Dr.
09.Shut Up
10.MY LOVE
11.The Meaning Of Us
12.Defend Love

There’s a regular album version, and another which is album + DVD. The album comes with a poster.
Preorder CD HERE and CD+DVD HERE.
The CD is $40.75 USD and the CD+DVD is $51.49 USD. Yes, it’s pricey. ALL Japan versions of CDs and DVDs and concerts are more expensive. Just because it’s from Japan -.- Anyway, this album is definately one to look out for, because Namie Amuro rarely disappoints, and I have high expectations for this album! One of the queens of Jpop is back!

holy 1000MPH!!!!!!

This week, we’re getting into our virtual car and stepping on the gas pedal in Songs About Driving. Read on to find out what tracks are accompanying the girls speeding through their work and all the way into the weekend…

Sostylistic selects: Tracy Chapman – Fast Car.

Sartoriology recommends: Chris Rea – Road To Hell.

A Work In Progress picks: Madness – Driving My Car.

Ellie chooses: Iggy Pop – The Passenger.

New Favourite Thing suggests: Prince – Little Red Corvette.

Frankie opts for double whammy as it’s her turn to own the phrase “BECAUSE I’M LEAVING!”: Cyndi Lauper – I Drove All Night.

And..

Chris Rea – Driving Home For Christmas.

Soldiersailor elects: AC/DC – Highway To Hell.

In tune with Battersea Park love themed fireworks, things got a bit slushy in the office last week. Find out what tracks we chose in Songs Inspired By Love.

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Thanks for stopping by. I know, we’ve not posted anything for a week or so. Well, we’ve got a new home. We want you to keep up with us so here is the link http://www.g-werksblog.com

That should be a bit easier to remember. So check it out soon, its where we’re going to continue our regular rantings on all things dub, its where you’ll find special offers for your supercharged, turbo charged or normally aspirated VolksAudiSeat machine. Its where we’ll show you what rims you should be running, what shoes you should be wearing and what beats you should be cruising to.

Just so you remember, http://www.g-werksblog.com. Its packed full of new and nostalgic posts, its got plenty of new features (like the ability to buy cracking products like those from our new Mason-Tech hook up) and its the best way to keep up to speed with team G-werks.

See you there…

***Please note that TweakCulture has moved! Please click here to view this post on the new server***

The end of 2009 has seen two milestones in the UK car scene, this being the 1^st anniversary of Honda Culture and one of its sponsors TweakCulture. It has been a hectic year for both parties but I am sure that everyone would agree that all the hard work has paid off. However that said that does not mean 2010 will be a quiet year!

Honda Culture was started by a group of friends who all share the same interests in the marque, Honda. We organised the Honda meets in Milton Keynes which became very popular despite the shocking weather we had at times! January 2009 saw the passing of a fellow member Nelan Reddy who was very close to us. Nelan had a blue EG dx which he had lots of plans for however did not get to see them through due to complications with leukaemia. It is his family’s decision to finish the car the way he wanted. In May 2009 a number of HC members went on a charity drive organised by Wes at TokyoDrive to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Research and we will continue supporting (or maybe organising some) events like this in the future.

You will also find a number of cars wearing the decal shown below in remembrance of Nelan. Honda Culture was created in memory of Nelan.

In our 1^st year as a club, HC has grown with the number of official members now creeping over the 30 mark however with the huge amount of supporters there has also been a number of haters. To set things straight we have no problems with any other club/forum! We build our cars for ourselves and have a laugh doing so. We just want to enjoy the shows/meets etc just like everyone else and have no problems supporting other clubs and their events as we did with TeamScorpio.

I am truly amazed at the quality of cars that our members bring out and this is only the beginning. With lots of projects in the pipeline and current cars having makeovers, all I can say is that 2010 is going to be an exciting year!

Honda Culture has already had 2 feature cars in its first year, James (or tegboy as most know him) with his awesome EK9 (see James’ previous feature here) which was in Banzai and myself (darkside) with my VSM EK4 that is in the current issue of Fast Car. There will be lots more cars breaking through next and expect to see some of these in magazines.

As many people already know HC is an exclusive club in which you would have to be invited to join. This is not for any elitist reason, but simply to ensure only like minded people become members in order to keep the friendly and laid back feel to the club. The main boxes a person needs to tick before being invited to join Honda Culture is to have or be building an awesome car but most importantly have a good and very friendly attitude as well as building their cars for themselves not to just be part of a club or scene (ironically!), its all about having fun. Official member’s cars can be recognised by having a gold HC Cartel decal and members will have the HC shirt (the haters know this as the bowling team shirt).

With the help of our 3 sponsors TweakCulture, AceImageUK and Endless Horizon Motorsport (who we think are the best of best at what they do) I am sure that Honda Culture will be making an even bigger impact next year.

The new Honda Culture website (along with its new forum) is currently being developed and is expected to go live very soon, so be sure to keep an eye on this blog for more news of the launch.

Be sure to catch us at a few shows and meets next year.

Big thanks to James for giving us the honour of being the first to contribute to the TweakCulture blog.

Dean Reddy (darkside)

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