Future garage as a genre has always carried a melancholic undercurrent, rooted in the post-dubstep era, it borrowed the half-tempo swing and emotional weight of UK bass music and stretched it into something more introspective. Lotus takes that lineage and strips it further, removing the dancefloor elements almost entirely and leaving only texture, stutter, and atmosphere.
Showcasing his drum power and composition with rhythms and vocals
Weirdrum Records has been running since August 2023, and for a label barely three years old, it’s already developing a consistent aesthetic around lo-fi, ambient, and experimental electronic releases. Lotus by Ert—the project of Tuvan-born, Moscow-based producer Ertine Mongush, fits that vision precisely.
First time hearing Ert and this was impressive for how it presented itself. The first two tracks on the release present themselves as an ambient piece, like a seamless opener easing you into Mongush‘s world before anything reveals itself. “Providence” opens up the release really well, showcasing his drum power and composition with rhythms and vocals. A pattern emerges quickly in his production approach—a stutter effect applied to pads on the first track “Stutter Life” reappears here, and again on the title track “Lotus.” Whether this is a recurring theme in the release or simply his signature style, it works either way. The stutter technique—where a sound is chopped and repeated in quick succession before resolving, creates a sense of hesitation and suspension, like a thought being interrupted mid-sentence. In the context of ambient and lo-fi IDM, it adds an organic tension that keeps the listener from drifting too far into passive listening.
“Embrace” is the most active track in the bunch. The drums here are fast and punchy with tight fills and rolls, a noticeable shift in energy from the quieter opening. The stutter effect returns again, and the vocals carry a beautiful tremolo that adds a fragile, wavering quality to an otherwise propulsive track. Tremolo on vocals is a delicate technique, applied too heavily it becomes distracting, but at the right depth it adds emotional dimension without pulling attention away from the composition itself. Mongush handles it well.
The closing track “Mud” is a great closer. Beautiful glass strings and pads play out but leave the listener wanting more. It feels like a teaser to something bigger or at least it sounds that way when listening. There’s a sense of incompleteness that feels entirely intentional, like a sentence that trails off rather than ends. What stays with you after Lotus is the economy of it. Six tracks, no excess, no moment where Mongush overplays his hand.
Future garage as a genre has always carried a melancholic undercurrent, rooted in the post-dubstep era, it borrowed the half-tempo swing and emotional weight of UK bass music and stretched it into something more introspective. Lotus takes that lineage and strips it further, removing the dancefloor elements almost entirely and leaving only texture, stutter, and atmosphere. The result is a release that doesn’t announce its ambitions. It just quietly does what it set out to do and ends before you’re ready for it to. That feeling of wanting more, especially after “Mud” trails off, is the highest compliment you can pay a short release. Mongush isn’t padding anything out. Every second here is deliberate, and that discipline is what makes Lotus worth returning to.
Lotus is available on Weirdrum. [Bandcamp]
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