"Galang" is the debut single by British musician M.I.A. from her debut album Arular. It was released in 2003 on Showbiz Records which pressed 500 vinyl copies, gaining immediate international recognition via radio airplay, fashion shows, club rotations and internet filesharing. "Galang" was re-released on 1 November 2004 via XL Recordings as the second single from the album released by the label and was released for a third time as "Galang '05" on 11 October 2005 by the label and in the US by Interscope Records. It is written by Maya "M.I.A." Arulpragasam, Justine Frischmann, Ross Orton and Steve Mackey.
It first appeared on M.I.A.'s six song demo tape in 2003, then on her official Myspace account on 9 June 2004 and was later reworked slightly by Orton and Mackey who received production credit for the song. "Galang" was the second song M.I.A. wrote on her Roland MC-505, intending for the piece to be performed by Frischmann's band Elastica. Inspired by her experiences and observations of life in London, M.I.A. wrote the song to encourage her friends in the band to continue to make music. However, after cowriting the song, Frischmann convinced M.I.A. to record "Galang" herself, complimenting the piece's lyrical narrative and music direction.
Musically, "Galang" is a dance-oriented midtempo song, combining elements of dancehall, electro, jungle, and world music. M.I.A.'s voice is heard in a whooping chant-like rap over polyrhythmic Roland MC-505 arrangements of beats, drums, claps and synths along the song's bassline. The word 'galang' comes from Caribbean slang word for 'go along', in the sense of 'behave'. The lyrics of the song are ambiguous, and could be interpreted differently by listeners, containing hidden innuendo to cannabis use, sex, and violence and references to songs such as "London Calling" and "Purple Haze". The song comments on a weed smoking young character in London, caught in street battles, paranoid and harassed by police while looking for work in the city. "Galang" was a major critical success amongst contemporary and older critics, who frequently hail its sound and lyrics as novel, reflective and ahead of their time. It charted in the UK and Canada and reached number 11 on the US Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales.
The song's accompanying music video, directed by Ruben Fleischer and art directed by M.I.A. portrays the singer in several costumes roaming and dancing amidst stencils of her single artwork and images from her 2001 Alternative Turner Prize nominated exhibition, animated in the background. With the video, scholars note that multiple M.I.A.s appear against a backdrop of militaristic animated graffiti, utilising symbolism of urban Britain and war, tiger imagery and Tamil script stencils. The video was given vitality by the bold use of day-glo colour and her distinct design technique in the art, her costumes and music, triggering the new rave revolution upon its release. "Galang" appeared on several publications' lists of the best song of the year, decade and of all time. The song's rapid international propagation through radio, fashion shows and the internet along with "Sunshowers" made it one of the first viral phenomena in the modern age, and affirmed M.I.A as one of the first popstars of the digital age.
"Galang" has been covered by jazz pianist Vijay Iyer and is officially remixed by Serj Tankian and Dave Kelly, both appearing on the B-side of its 2005 reedition. The song has appeared in the feature film Pride and Glory, a commercial for Honda Civic and the television series Sherlock and Entourage. M.I.A. performed the song on Sen kväll med Luuk and Late Night with Conan O'Brien and performs the song on her concert tours, first on her Arular Tour and most recently the Maya Tour where it was well appreciated by fans. Hailed as one of M.I.A.'s defining tracks, her persona in the song has influenced numerous artists worldwide, led to M.I.A.'s acceptance by a generation who emulated her music, style and fashion, and cemented her position as a global indie music cultural icon.
Background Following her work as a photographer/graphic designer and music video director for the band Elastica, M.I.A. decided to video document the band's last tour together in 2001 to direct the music video for their single "Mad Dog God Dam". On the tour, she was introduced to the Roland MC-505 sequencer/drum machine by electroclash artist Peaches, whose minimalistic approach to music inspired her. She found Peaches' decision to perform without additional instrumentation to be brave and liberating and felt that it emphasised the artist. While vacationing together in Bequia in the Caribbean, M.I.A. began experimenting with Elastica singer Justine Frischmann's 505, having unexpectedly gaining access to it in London. She adopted her stage name, "M.I.A.", standing for "Missing In Acton" during this time, following from her documentary film in Jaffna and her art exhibition of the same name. M.I.A. used the 505 to make demo recordings in her bedroom. She initially planned to work as a producer. Composed as a song for Elastica to encourage the band to continue making music, Frischmann convinced M.I.A to record music herself instead after co-writing the composition. M.I.A. lacked confidence in making music and to this end, she approached Caribbean girls in clubs to see if they would provide vocals for the songs, but without success. She chose to perform the vocals herself, saying "I just quietly got on with it ... I didn't wanna convince anyone it was good. I felt it was much better to prove that I could be an individual."
Composition "Galang" is a moderately fast song, with a tempo of 101 beats per minute. It combines dancehall, jungle, electroclash and worldbeat with folk style chants, and is set in common time. The song features sparse instrumentation throughout, consisting primarily of minimal "jarring" polyrhythm beats written with a drum machine and "blaring" Moog synthesiser sounds as the song's riff. Its rhythms are influenced by traditional Sri Lankan songs, and feature beeps, bloops and electronic loops. It is in verse-chorus form before the fourth and final chorus and a vocal coda. Composed in London using a second-hand 4-track tape machine, the Roland MC-505, and a radio microphone, M.I.A. recorded "Galang" in the same vein as the rest of Arular, the song eventually becoming part of a six song demo tape that included "Lady Killa", and her first ever composition "M.I.A." Having produced rough tracks via trial and error, she honed the finished songs in collaboration with other writer-producers. Through these collaborations, she sought to produce a diverse style and "drag [her collaborators] out of their boxes, musically". Steve Mackey and Ross Orton, under the name Cavemen, worked further on "Galang" with M.I.A in a professional studio, where she added a bass line and new vocals to give the song a more analogue sound than was possible with the 505. The track was co-written by Frischmann, whose input M.I.A. described as "refreshing" due to Frischmann's experimental approach to lyrical themes. Speaking openly about the lyrical origins of the song, she said "This was only the second track I ever wrote, so I was still experimenting. I just wanted to put down all the advice everyone had said to me about how to survive in London."
Release and song use
The single/demo was the first release for Jonathan Dickins' Showbiz Records, a label that operated through Dicken's uncle's record label Instant Karma. Upon pressing 500 12-inch vinyl copies of the single and demo, it made an immediate impact in dance clubs, college radio, fashion shows and record labels. On the vinyl, "Galang" appeared alongside acapella and instrumental versions of the song. "Galang" became popular with BBC Radio 1 DJs Gilles Peterson and Pete Tong, the latter including the song as part of his Essential Selection radio set in 2003. The success of the song led to a signing with XL Recordings and M.I.A. requesting Dickens to work as her manager, beginning Dickens career in music industry management. M.I.A. wanted to sign to XL due to the label office's proximity to her house, and her respect for label owner Richard Russell and his pioneering involvement with the rave scene in 1990s London that the singer was a fan of. Uploading the song and others she had recorded onto music sharing website MySpace in June 2004 paralleled the file-sharing and fast propagation of "Galang" and "Sunshowers" around the Internet by word-of-mouth, increasing the songs' international listenership. This led to wide acclaim for the singer, who is hailed as one of the first artists to build a large fanbase exclusively via these channels and as someone who could be studied to reexamine the internet's impact on how listeners are exposed to new music. Malik Meer of The Guardian notes how the spread of "Galang" across the web confirmed M.I.A's status as one of the first popstars of the digital age, while Gary Shteyngart, writing for GQ, commented on how the song went viral across the internet "before anyone was even using the word "viral".
"Galang" was released in Australia by Remote Control Records on 25 October 2004 and rereleased on 1 November 2004 by XL Recordings as the second official single from the album, in two CD formats and a 12-inch vinyl format. On the first CD a remix by Cavemen appeared on the B-side, while on the second the same remix and an instrumental version appeared on the B-side alongside a remix by South Rakkas. "Galang" was released again in October 2005 following her signing to Interscope Records in the US, under the title "Galang '05", with one remix by Dave Kelly featuring the singer Cham, and another by Serj Tankian.
Jazz pianist Vijay Iyer recorded an acoustic jazz version of Galang with his trio for the album Historicity. M.I.A. performed the song on 5 November 2004 on Sen kväll med Luuk and on 27 May 2005 on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. "Galang" was featured in an advertisement for the Honda Civic, and was also used in the episode "The Abyss" from season 2 on Entourage. The song featured on the 2008 video game Dancing Stage Universe 2. The song featured in the 2008 film Pride and Glory. "Galang" appears on the video game Dance Central released in 2011.
Live performances "Galang" has featured on the setlist of the Arular Tour, Kala Tour, People Vs. Money Tour and Maya Tour, all major concert tours that M.I.A has undertaken. She ended her set in the Gobi tent at the 2005 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival with the song, leading to an encore in response to crowd enthusiasm, a rarity for the festival and the first tent encore at Coachella. Describing the performance she said, "When I played three years ago, it was such a crazy moment. It was my first festival and I had only done about five shows in my entire life...They dismantled the stage and had to put it back together because all the people started going, 'M.I.A! M.I.A!' I don't think I'd ever be able to do something like that again, because it was my moment."
The rapper performed "Galang" and a cover of the rock band Kaiser Chiefs' "Everyday I Love You Less and Less" on Jo Whiley's BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge, on 6 September 2005, the day of the 2005 Mercury Music Prize ceremony.
Critical reception