Drum & Bass in South Asia has been an enigma. Despite making its way in the region as early as 1998, it still exists in pockets, unlike the territory’s flourishing House & Techno scene.
But when drum & bass decides to shine, it does in the form of IYRE. In just over a year, Sasith Gamage aka IYRE has put his country Sri Lanka and then the South Asian region on the global drum & bass map.
After spending his early years in Sri Lanka’s metal scene, IYRE found his love in the aggressive sounds of dubstep, before finally realizing that he can create magic with liquid drum & bass. Since his debut on Goldfat Records in 2021, he has been making major moves with releases on labels like Pilot Records, Fokuz Recordings and Celsius Recordings.
The Sri Lankan phenomenon is now set to make his full debut with a 4-track EP on Goldfat Records, and we are stoked to have him as our ‘Artist Of The Month’ for May – where were will dive deep into his rise to the top, his alter ego followed by a candid conversation with the man himself.
FORMATIVE YEARS
A lot of bass music enthusiasts you know may have made their transition from metal or rock music into dubstep or drum & bass and IYRE was no exception to this. However, he didn’t just transition into the genres, he brought his influences into his dubstep and DnB sound when he started his iClown alias about a decade ago.
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IYRE blended a number of styles into his heavy artillery music and by taking influences from the brostep era of the dubstep genre, his iClown alias started making some serious moves in his country and beyond.
Despite being heavily inspired by bass music, iClown’s productions knew no bounds and he also produced tracks in the hip-hop space with his favorite collaborators like Bala Mandala Ravi Jay, and Costa Marley with tracks like ‘LIGHT’ and ‘Heena Mathe’.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXjVr21ztBY]BIRTH OF IYRE
While the Sri Lankan producer’s forte was the heavier and the militaristic side of music, he was not happy with his outcome and that was moment that changed everything. He started exploring the softer and the liquid side of drum & bass and found his new love within it.
After digging deep into the genre for over a year IYRE made his debut on Mitekiss and MC Porter’s Goldfat Records in early 2021 with ‘Fragments‘ which was a part of the label’s yearly compilation. He followed up on his debut on the label with a gorgeous 2-track EP, which in our opinion is one his best works to date.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/1104729643″ params=”color=#ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]IYRE was then snapped up by Celcius Recordings, Fokuz Recordings and UKF’s label Pilot Records where he delivered his emotional and flowy style of drum & bass to perfection. The Sri Lankan’s monumental rise saw him bag a nomination in Drum&BassArena’s Awards for the best newcomer category in 2021 and he was the first artist from the South Asian region to do so.
Along with his breathtaking music, the feather in the hat moment was IYRE’s virtual performance for UKF’s Future Vision for a delicious multi-genre set to kickstart 2022.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVYnI8jOShE]For his first release of the year, IYRE is all set to make his full debut on Goldfat Records with a 4 track EP which slated to land in the last week of this month and we’re beyond stoked for the release.
With that, we bring a sneak peek into IYRE’s music to close but when we return next week, we will give you a selection of our favorite IYRE tunes.
