When South Korean girl group tripleS finally completed its 24(!)-member roster after almost two years and several sub-units (smaller combinations given their own releases; TripleS call their sub-units “dimensions”), their first full album, Assemble24, came to be; its title track, “Girls Never Die,” a highlight of this summer’s K-pop offerings.
Unfortunately, it looks like the whole dream of a “24-member active girl group” is less an ongoing status so much as a likely annual event. Their first move post-“assembly” was the announcement of two new dimensions. Perhaps we should’ve seen this coming; after all, tripleS’ parent company Modhaus had been marketing them as the first “decentralized pop group.” It’s a little deflating, though, to have anticipated and see such an ambitious goal be realized only to revert back to business as usual. Guess the “mod” in Modhaus really does stand for modular.
New dimension from tripleS
The first of the new dimensions is called Visionary Vision, their accompanying release, a full album called Performante. As is usual for tripleS, fans voted who would become members of this new dimension, as well as who the leader would be. During the Gravity (voting events where fans can vote with digital currency) for Visionary Vision, the key terms given to describe the new dimension were “hi-tech dance,” “boyish,” and “level up.” The gist seemed to be that this was going to be the “dance crew” dimension.
Performante, or “high performance,” is the first full album for a tripleS dimension, coming on the heels of tripleS’ first full album as a 24-member girl group. With performance a key component of Visionary Vision, it wouldn’t do to ignore the choreography of title track “Hit the Floor,” a West Coast hip-hop throwback with requisite sirens and sliding synths. The choreo falls short of what one imagines when one hears “hi-tech dance.” It’s not especially technical and doesn’t really stand out from other tripleS choreos. When members mention how exhausting it is, it feels due to the fewer breaks they get to catch a breath on the sidelines, as opposed to anything technically demanding. The choreography of promoted b-side “Choom” has the same feel: just fine; some cute/pleasant moments, but nothing to write home about. What we needed here was something to give rookie group Badvillain, a group prominently featuring members from dance crews, a run for their money. This isn’t it.
“Hit the Floor” is a high-energy, catchy riff on the kind of ‘90s OG hip-hop that K-pop’s first generation were obsessed with. Indeed, this sound is the entire concept behind another rookie group: Young Posse. Some groups, Badvillain included, have marked hip-hop as their area of play; XG, another group known for exceptional dance skills, only recently started releasing songs that are primarily sung and not rapped.
It’s an interesting choice to go with hip-hop for “Hit the Floor.” A propulsive beat with upright bass, chops, and breakbeats, switching up to a flighty pre-chorus that lets Chinese member Xinyu shine… There’s even a bridge that spotlights Yubin and Kaede, giving a chance for the dancers’ underrated vocals to shine. These spots are usually reserved for tripleS’ main belters DaHyun and JiWoo, neither of whom got voted into Visionary Vision. It then drops into a dance break that sounds like DJ Qbert speed-scratching an old Aphex Twin record. The all-member chorus sounds like a chant that anchors the song.
Other tracks keep the energy, if not the genre, of the title track. Two instrumental moodsetters and a reworked version of a prior tripleS song aside, the remaining six tracks on Performante serve a mish-mash. The upbeat “Choom” feels imported from a different mini-album altogether; its angelic vocals and pop-rock base would make for a good opening theme to your new favorite anime. “Love Soseol” sounds like a J-pop track with double-timed percussion and rapidly-ascending organ.
“12 Rings,” like “Choom,” sees the members singing in a higher register, backed by a lighter and more mellow melody than one would expect from the girls wearing faux grills in “Hit the Floor”’s music video. “Vision” has a funkier groove (and lyrics by member SoHyun), breathy singing, and another vocal showcase for YuBin. Bhangra, a traditional Indian folk dance, influences “Bionic Power,” a song from a prior Gravity which features sitar plucks with breathless rapping, making for a dynamic tension.
It is curious why a group’s first full album would be immediately followed by another full album for a sub-unit; perhaps Modhaus just have that many songs in the bank. Without visuals to accompany the b-sides, the “performance” aspects remain limited. A scattershot approach to genre also hampers the overall effect; one hopes the next dimension, an 8-member group who will promote in Japan, gets a more concentrated focus in their song curation.
