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 synthesizer 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 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."
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