Song Review: ARTMS Release 2nd Pre-Debut Single "Pre2: Flower Rhythm"

ARTMS - Pre2 : Flower Rhythm 

Release Info & Mini Bio 

ARTMS (아르테미스) is the new five-member girl group under MODHAUS. The group is technically a sub-unit of the girl-group LOONA consisting of members: JinSoul (진솔), HaSeul (하슬), Kim Lip (김립), HeeJin (희진) and Choerry (최리). I can't say ex-members of LOONA because officially LOONA hasn't disbanded yet. That also makes ODD EYE CIRCLE a sub-unit of both LOONA and ARTMS. 

Although it has been emphasized that ARTMS isn't the group's name and rather it means Artemis Strategy project, it seems that MODHAUS is still going with that name. The group (or sub-unit, or project) made a pre-debut (or debut, or comeback) on March 29, 2024 with their 1st digital single "Pre1: Birth" and today on April 11, 2024 they released their 2nd pre-debut single "Pre2 : Flower Rhythm". 

ARTMS's debut full-length album "<Dall>" is scheduled to be released on May 31, 2024 with "Virtual Angel" serving as the album's title track and the singles "Candy Crush" and "Air" are scheduled to be pre-released on April 25 and May 10. 2024 respectively. 

Review 

The song can be described as a hybrid dance number that combines ARTMS's unique sensibility and musical color. The theme of "Flower Rhythm" is 'blossoming' and it is based on member Heejin's solo album title track, "Algorithm". The first red flag was the duration, again. The song is rather on the short side, with a duration only slightly longer than 2.30 minutes. That makes the song feel more like an intro than a fully realized song. It starts slowly and builds up as it goes, but right when you expect a crescendo it just ends. The other immediately obvious fact is that this isn't a proper music video. MODHAUS calls it an Official Track Video, which in reality is a mix between a performance video and a lyric video. It wouldn't have been bad if the choreography was striking or memorable, but unfortunately it is very basic and boring. In half the music video the girls are just slowly walking around an an empty scene.