ARTMS is one of two groups formed of k-pop giant LOONA, which officially disbanded after they sued their company, Blockberry Creative, in 2022. Five of the twelve members of LOONA, Heejin, Haseul, Kim Lip, Choerry, and Jinsoul, then signed with Modhaus Entertainment (which was founded by their old producer Jaden Jeong and is also home to group TripleS and IDNTT) and created ARTMS.

(I know that was a lot; I promise this is relevant information, guys, trust me)

So, here are my credentials: I was a casual fan of LOONA during their tenure as a 12-member group, but I actually became more of a fan after their saga getting free from BlockBerry, and I’ve followed their careers after since. The girls of ARTMS are some of the ones I know the least well out of the group, so I’m interested to learn more. Let’s get into it!

(“ARTMS Deep Dive AKA “Anna wants an excuse to write abt how much she loves the LOONA girls but their post-LOONA solo work doesn’t fit her arbitrary requirements to cover a band so here we are”—)

EP #1: Version Up (Odd Eye Circle)

(Note: this release only features 3 members of ARTMS (Kim Lip, Choerry, and JinSoul, because they made up a subunit in LOONA called “Odd Eye Circle”, and this release is very much tied to that one).

Maybe it’s because I know next to nothing about popular brands and even less about any shoes with a heel of less than 2 inches, but for some reason I assumed that the title of Air Force One was to do with the presidential plane and not the shoe named after it. Which is stupid, in hindsight, because that’s an American thing. Ignoring that, the song is pretty good, following in the footsteps of the sound Odd Eye Circle established back in LOONA’s 2016 pre-debut era. It doesn’t go quite as far as I’d like, unfortunately, relying on a not very unique “dadadadadada” for its main hook, and thus ends up a bit forgettable. The MV falls in the same category, having some hints toward LOONA’s lore that made me smile but otherwise being par for the course. I still liked it, but it goes into the folder of kpop songs that I wouldn’t skip if they came up on shuffle but wouldn’t seek out either.

From the EP, I enjoyed the dreamy yet confidence-driven Je Ne Sais Quoi and the woozy dancefloor sound of Love Me Like. I’d categorize the mini-album the same way as the single—perfectly fine.

Single #1: Birth

Birth, to its absolute credit, is nothing like I was expecting. From the nearly silent acapella opening to the excellent melding of paintings with live-action in the music video, it’s delightfully bizarre and delightfully eerie. And the fact that it starts out so slowly, so quietly, that you just know something terrible is going to happen only adds to the feeling of horror crawling up your spine. It’s like a three-minute horror movie, with evocative lyrics like “I’ve become your monologue, born with a fake smile”, “an illusion in delirium”, and “my pure face has been a lie all this time”, with gorgeous visuals to boot.

As mentioned, I especially loved the artwork, which felt distinctly late Medieval to me in terms of color palette and perspective, and as a history teacher in training, I was delighted to see it. Overall, this song is excellent, though it’s not the kind of thing I’d listen to very often.

Album #1: DALL (Devine All Love & Live)

Virtual Angel takes the ethereal sound hinted at by Odd Eye Circle’s EP and embraces it wholeheartedly, which sounds like an odd to say for such a light and almost gentle song but it really is true. There are few other songs like it, that’s for certain, and I don’t just mean that in terms of how it sounds, but in appearance too. The MV cleverly takes the idea that angels are too overwhelming for the human eye to comprehend and creates a visual experience practically impossible for anyone to bear witness to, with constant flashing lights and a frankly impressive amounts of cuts. That being said, if you have any kind of neural disability such as epilepsy or are prone to overstimulation (like me), do yourself a favor and watch the “Human Eye version” instead.

Since DALL is both a full album and the official debut of ARTMS as five members, I thought it deserved a bit more of an in-depth look. I was happy to see the continuation of the instrumental intros here (I could go on a whole rant about them being a lost art, but I’m sure you don’t want to spend your entire lunch break reading that, so I digress), and I especially liked the melding of classic pop with touches of funk and even rock in URL; I hope they use this sound for a full song.

As for the album’s full songs, besides the previously released Birth, I enjoyed the dreamy synths of Butterfly Effect, the smooth R & B of Candy Crush, and especially the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it sample of Air Force One in the background of Air. My hidden gem was The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, with its clever lyrics and unique glitch-pop sound. It’s one of the few songs I’d actually heard from ARTMS before this deep dive, because I featured it in my Twenty Kpop Songs To Help You Pass Astronomy post a few weeks back (read that here), and I confess it’s remained a favorite since then. It’s not a song I listen to often, but every time I do I find myself wondering why on earth I don’t.

Single #2: Burn

Burn hews closer to Birth than any other song so far, from its dark color palette to its embrace of the darkness in its lyrics. I wasn’t expecting the distorted EDM sound of the chorus from the way the rest of the song—or the rest of ARTMS’ material—sounds but I don’t dislike it. I wish the whole thing went a bit further than it does, but overall it’s a good song that feels like it should be listened to walking down a runway. The MV isn’t really comparable to the other three we’ve talked about, being a fairly low-budget dance performance compared to a high-budget mini-movie, but either way, I thought it was fairly good.

EP #2: Club Icarus

Icarus’ interesting string-led instrumental is like nothing I’ve heard before in kpop, that’s for sure; it feels a bit like a harp. It takes bits and pieces from past singles, like the eerie underbelly of Birth and the very light synth sound of Virtual Angel, albeit a bit less outwardly joyful than the latter. It feels a bit like floating through space and time, in the best way possible. The build is something special, and the song’s final minute is worth the wait with the way that it makes everything come together. As for the MV, which I’ll get into in a moment, there’s actually two versions: the “Club” version, which is the usual four minutes, and the “Cinematic” version, which clocks in at a whopping fourteen.

Kpop has a long history of mini-movies, from Golden Child’s zombie apocalypse epic Burn It to IU’s nearly half-hour long Every End Of The Day, so let it be known I had high expectations. And of course I watched the whole thing. Somehow, it follows a girl without wings made fun of by her village who asks a witch for help getting revenge (what a sentence, oh my god), and somehow, it works. Oscillating between a return to the deeply saturated medieval art I so loved in Birth, live-action set in the modern day, and narration that sounds as though it’s spoken through an old radio, it manages to be atmospheric, haunting, and undeniably gripping. Halfway through, I was so invested that I forgot I was watching an MV until the music began. And the dancing is incredible and so communicative. Any more would be spoilers, but do yourself a favor and go watch it for yourself; it may only be June but I’m confident in calling it my music video of the year.

From the EP, I enjoyed the pulsing beat of Obsessed, but my hidden gem was the synthy Verified Beauty.

Verdict: TL;DR

I’m glad I did this! It was so nice to see the girls again, and see them doing so well especially. I didn’t have a lot of time writing this review, unfortunately, but I did manage to watch them “challenge Family Feud” and make a guest appearance on InternetsNathan ranking all their songs, both of which were a lot of fun. I also read their interview with NME.

My Top 5 songs were Icarus, Birth, The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Virtual Angel, and Burn, with Butterfly Effect as an honorable mention. ARTMS gets an 8.25 out of 10 from me, and I admit a lot of my thoughts on them are colored by my fondness, but I promise I’m doing my best to be objective. Though it may seem odd to say this about a group that often works in polar opposites, I love the clear identity they’re building for themselves, and the exploring they do of humanity versus idealized visions and where our ideas of heaven and hell fall into it. Their music videos are so unique and are only getting better.

But I have to confess that a lot of their songs, despite being consistent and pretty technically flawless, just don’t do much for me. I listen to hundreds of songs a week—both for the blog and for fun—and so if a song doesn’t really hit me, I’m not going to return to it. That being said, I’m still very excited to see where they go next, and I’ll be keeping an eye–and an ear–out.

Next time, we’re onto a boy group. Tschüss!