Review Summary: A sugar rush and good music
A deeply convenient one-word answer to exactly *what* has been happening in K-Pop over the last couple of years, MODHAUS really is a name of the moment. Co-founded by former LOONA creative director Jaden Jeong, the agency has done great work with its 24-girl flagship project tripleS (and all however-many sub-units), only to bolster this by hoovering up arguably the better half of LOONA, rebranded as ARTMS and announced alongside LOONA's Odd Eye Circle sub-unit, who made a welcome return with last year's
Version Up EP (see my review of that release for a full account of the drama that led to LOONA's diaspora). With none of their output worse than decent and
two entirely new projects on the horizon, MODHAUS seems only just to be hitting its stride; as someone who treats K-Pop as an occasional, trend-savvy sugar fix and does not have the patience to play pick 'n' mix between umpteen breakout stars and rival fandoms, it's no exaggeration to say that the agency's roster caters single-handedly to every single one of my K-Pop needs and preferences (the only thing that's put me off wholesale dependency is the ongoing output of the always-great TWICE).
In the scheme of all this, ARTMS' highly-anticipated debut full-length
<Dall> lands comfortably among the upper ranks of both MODHAUS and post-LOONA output, topped only by the tripleS sub-unit LOVElution's excellent debut EP. It sets out a high-wire balancing act between R&B and bubblegum with its effervescent vocal melodies, crystal-clear production, and delightfully robust beatwork, all of which are so breezily handled that there's little in the way of stakes or friction, and far more in the way no-nonsense gratification (as the opener "Virtual Angel" in particular sets this out to breathlessly danceable effect). The group's stylistic palette proves malleable, slickly incorporating forays into breakbeat ("The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"), 2-step ("Sparkle") and city pop ("Candy Crush") with nary a beat missed.
All of this folds together so seamlessly that the one track that truly rocks the boat – the oh-so-misleading single "Birth" – lands less as the gamechanger it was doubtless envisioned as, and more as a perplexing flex of artistic potential that gels not at all with the ultra-palatable refinement of the other tracks and lacks secure footing tacked onto the very end of the album. On its own terms, the track's interplay between sinister, Bond-ready schmooze and jagged industrial lurches very much do amount to an intriguing single and a launchpad for a more experimental trajectory, but it finds little traction across the preceding nine sugar-offerings and raises more questions about ARTMS' focus and identity as a project than it answers. The latter issue also applies to the rather tedious Odd Eye Circle reheat "Air", though for far less interesting reasons — compared to its electric impact on the original "Air Force One", the song's central hook pans out as turgid and insistent, its pacing somehow sluggish in spite of the album's most economical track-length. These two minor fumbles and a faintly conspicuous first-half/second-half quality split aside,
<Dall> is a confident debut that ticks all the right boxes and sets up a generous handful of the most effortless pop delights the year so far has had to offer. More ARTHIT than ARTMS, it turns out.
