Don't wait for the next fripSide NAO Project! song

Don't hold your breath, because you're just going to pass out and die a useless death. Singer Nao and composer Satoshi "sat" Yaginuma (don't you dare write his name in kanji!) have parted ways on March 15 2009, with nao leaving a dark and gloomy suicide note-like message plastered on the official fripSide website for good terrorizing measure. Just kidding, it's more of an articulate death threat to her numerous fans-gone-stalkers. The cited reason for the breakup is the cliché "artistic differences" excuse, but we'd like to think something more ominous happened.

Now nao can get by on her good looks alone but the same can't really be said of Mr. Sat (no offense man). He is, however, a rather prolific composer (whether he's a also good one is up to your judgment) so of course he quickly regrouped and hacked up a teaser page to make sure we know he intends to keep the fripSide brand alive and strong despite nao "graduating" her way out of the stagnating duo. Again, don't wait for that page to load! Way to piss all over GUI conventions, I'll never look at a progress bar the same way.

That said, Sat and Nao pumped out quite a few denpa tunes that [editorial] did profoundly irritate me at first given how much of a SHORT CIRCUIT ripoff I perceived them to be, but eventually found their way into my heart. In particular, the song "Happy Generation" is full of taurine-powered energy and still hasn't gotten old, despite having listened to it a few hundred times. [/editorial] They even performed these songs live a few times and thus helped further the denpa cause in their own way. So in honor of the fallen sound unit, here are a couple of Youtube videos that will take office of a belated elegy on this solemn day.

First we have their second-to-last song ever released, 「やっぱり世界はあたし☆れじぇんど!!」 which ironically came out on their first single in August 2008 (talk about a short-lived career). The last one they released was 「ないしょ思春期」 (October 2008) which was too slow and boring for me to bother talking about (but judge for yourself). In stark contrast, you'll notice that this one is chock full of energy, with an unrelenting tempo that's backed by strong bursts of generously distorted electric guitar. If those multiple HAI HAIs and overall singing style don't remind you of KOTOKO (especially the fast parts), you might want to check your ears. It's painfully obvious what they were going after.

Then we have 「あっせんぶる☆LOVEさんぶる」, which most people like to think of as their flagship song, since it's the first one that was made public. It not only opens the "RABBIT SYNDROME" album (January 2008) but also closes it with a "hype" version that contains quite an extended 8-bit intro. It's a lot more tame than what's on the previous video, sure, but this strong progression in such a short span of time only adds insult to injury for those of us looking forward to more material from them.

And finally here's a digest of all songs featured on said "RABBIT SYNDROME" album. Gotta admit I'm sad to see NAO Project! fall apart like that. They weren't the most creative sound unit, but they were still a lot of fun to listen to. Here's hoping that mr. Sat doesn't completely ditch denpa with his future project.