[WORLD GROOVE] Currently listening to sifow - Love Spell

February 15, 2008 by KNDY

ARTIST: sifow

ALBUM: Love Spell

LABEL: avex trax

CATALOG #: AVCD-23333/B

DURATION: 51:40

RELEASE DATE: August 15, 2007

OFFICIAL WEBSITE

RULE
Tokyo Love Night
H3
Carat
Love regrets
Natsu Hanabi
Ai-Ai-!!!!
i WILL
YA-OMOTe
ii no ni…
Natsu Hanabi [yosakoi Girl de nadeshiko ver.]
CLARITY [Dank-One vs. Ovrar Remix]

DVD: Region 2, 4:3, Duration: 13 minutes

Carat (video clip)
RULE (video clip)
Natsu Hanabi (video clip)

sifow (Fujita Shiho) is an interesting individual outside of her career as a singer. For a young talent, her history of being a ganguro, a model, a writer and an entrepreneur and creator of “G-Revo” is known. Most of all is her work promoting a positive image for “gyaru” and her work towards establishing a music career has earned her own set of fans in Japan and around the world.

Since signing with Avex, I’ve listened to her music and although quite enjoyable, sifow has not really become a hit in terms of sales on the Oricon charts. This is a bit of a surprise to me and when I asked Japanese friends, some have an image of another Koda Kumi/R&B Japanese pop singer or “gyaru” (which typically are women who are tanned (often colored hair) - click here to various “gyaru” styles).
And because of the “gyaru” aspect of her music and possibly the image, it is probably one of the reasons why some Japanese have not wanted to give her music a try or she’s just another singer among many J-pop singers that gets lost in the shuffle. Which would be unfortunate because sifow’s music is one of the most catchiest dance, pop music from avex trax and has attracted listeners worldwide.

With sifow’s second full-length album “Love Spell”, the album features a collection of dance music from her 3rd through her 5th CD singles including the coupling tracks (so, there are really only 4 new songs on this album).

The album contains “CARAT” (track #4), sifow’s 3rd CD single and the coupling song “YA-OMOTe” (track #9). CARAT features a Para Para-esque musical style, while “YA-OMOTe” is similar in style.

“RULE” is sifow’s 4th CD single (track #1) released back in May 2007 and the coupling track “Love Regrets” (track #5) . Both are upbeat tracks with “RULE” is more of an upbeat pop song unlike “CARAT” which was more Eurobeat Para Para-esque. “Love Regrets” is a slower-tempo track that has a touch of that underground dance club sound that made me interested in her music in the first place (from EROCAWA TRANCE). sifow has an interesting singsong style approach when combined with digital beat features an enjoyable sound.

“Natsu Hanabi” is sifow’s 5th CD single (track #6) and is the ending theme for “DEEP*PARADISE”. The single included “Ai-Ai-!!!” (track #7) and “Natsu Hanabi [Yosokoi Gyaru de Nadeshiko ver.] (track #11).

“Natsu Hanabi” continue’s J-POP with dance club integration and also utilizing Japanese traditional instruments. The song comes off as something you want to listen to and dance to if it was a Dance Dance Revolution track.

But personally for me, the track that I love and possibly my favorite sifow song on the album happens to be “Ai-Ai-!!!”. The song is cool dance J-Pop with a disco vibe and very catchy and personally, showcases sifow’s energy through this track. Definitely one of the coolest songs to come from her.

As for “Natsu Hanabi [yosakoi gyaru de nadeshiko version]“, in this case is more evident of the Japanese traditional music and traditional instruments from the first track and incorporates more of the yosakoi feel.

Yosakoi is a unique dance that incorporates traditional Japanese dance with modern dance and there are many festivals dedicated to yosakoi in Japan. So, for those dance groups that incorporate this “Natsu Hanabi” into their choreography would definitely be cool to see.

As for the four new tracks, “Tokyo Love Night” (track #2) and “H3″ (track #3), both are very heavy with synth and more on the same musical feel of “Carat” with that Euro club dance music feel.

“i WILL” (track #8) is a fast up-beat pop song and very J-pop-ish than any other song in the album. While “ii no ni…” (track #10) is a mid-tempo pop ballad and the album ends with a “Dank-One vs. Ovrar Remix” of the song “CLARITY” featured on sifow’s first album “CLARITY” and very strong cyber-trance musically.

As for the DVD, the DVD features the video clips of her three CD singles “Carat”, “RULE” and “Natsu Hanabi”.

The music video for “Carat” features a music video that I can see playing at a major club with all the visuals. But the main focus is on sfow and her nicely tanned skin and her fast car. And scenes as she drives fast with the car.

The music video for “RULE” features sifow in a gold top and sarong, laying down on a large gold, sheet with gold butterfly’s flying everywhere and then showing the singer sing in a colorful setting with flowers and butterfly’s flying.

The music video for “Natsu Hanabi: features sifow performing in a traditional Japanese setting, with various musicians playing traditional Japanese instruments while sifow sings while wearing gold knee high boots, tight black shorts and a red bikini top and another scene in a blue robe.

The CD booklet insert features the lyrics of the songs and various photos of sifow.

It’s quite interesting how sifow’s music is so widely accepted among fans outside of Japan and unfortunately, under-appreciated in her country.

sifow’s music is catchy, very enjoyable and among the many dance pop stars out in Japan right now, I can expect something fresh and new with each CD single release from her.

While many performers go for the R&B to soul R&B style of sound, sifow is more dance club J-Pop and it surprises me that despite several awesome CD single releases, the excitement for her music is made more from her International fans.

All in all, sifow is a cool album if you don’t own any of the CD singles. Are the four extra songs worth purchasing if you have the CD singles, yes and no. Yes, if you’re a hardcore fan of sifow and also if you want to the get the DVD which features music videos for “Carat”, “RULE” and “Natsu Hanabi”. But if you have all that already and if you are just a casual listener of sifow’s music, then probably not. But if you are curious about her music, then I definitely recommend checking out “Love Spell”.

According to various sources, sifow has gone on a hiatus until 2010 as her focus is now building a school for gyaru. But if that is the case, that would be unfortunate because of her International fandom, she would be an artist that would be welcome to perform in the US and abroad.