Irish electropop darlings Le Galaxie, who blend club rhythms with retro synths and an indie aesthetic, make their UAE debut this weekend with gigs in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Known for high-octane live shows combining party-starting beats with 3-D visuals, iconic film clips and futuristic face make-up, Le Galaxie are at the same time cheekily irreverent and painfully hip.
Last year's major-label debut, Le Club successfully bottled the quartet's frenetic indie-dance-pop sound, earning a nomination for Ireland's influential Choice Music Award.
With summer festival gigs lined up at London’s Lovebox and Spain’s FIB (Festival Internacional de Benicàssim), and an upcoming tour supporting Faithless, the band is clearly on the upswing.
First however, Le Galaxie perform their first gigs of the year – fresh from the studio and promising to debut some brand new material – right here in the UAE, at McGettigan’s in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
We caught up with bassist David McGloughlin to find out what the band have been up to and what we can look forward to.
You are flying thousands of miles from Ireland to the UAE – to play in an Irish pub.
Yeah, we’re going very, very far, to essentially go home again. It should be good fun – we’ve never been quite that far east before, so it’s going to be a weird combination of culture shock and familiarity – being in the UAE, playing to Irish people.
Everyone talks about how mad your live shows are – how hard is that to capture on record?
Initially, we found it more difficult. Our first album [2011's Laserdisc Nights II], we produced pretty much entirely ourselves, and it wasn't until we released an EP called Fade to Forever [the following year] that we started to see how we would approach doing the record, crossing that divide led to Le Club. But they are two different mediums – the live show is very much about creating that atmosphere with that audience in that moment, but on a record you want to give a bit more depth for people to want to come back again and again.
You mixed the album in Los Angeles, with Eric Broucek, who worked extensively with LCD Soundsystem.
The way we work, we would be recording as we write the songs, so some of what ended up on the record was the very first time something was played at the moment of inspiration. So the record was a combination of those recordings with two months of transplants in the studio. Once that was all assembled, we knew we wanted to find someone really high-calibre to work with, and one of the names that came up was Eric, one of DFA’s house engineers. We went over to Los Angeles and spent a week finalising the mixes, which was an absolutely incredible experience.
There’s a sci-fi theme running through a lot of your stuff. Who’s the geek in the band?
We kind of all are. This weekend I've had at least three conversations with members of the band about Star Trek: The Next Generation, something I'm not necessarily proud of. When we first started out, Le Galaxie was the name of a song we'd written and for want of a vocalist, we would just throw in these movie-dialogue samples we liked – so the space theme grew from there.
Despite the dance influences now, you started off playing together as an alt rock band, 66e.
We did get a lot of comparisons to Radiohead. That band was winding down, the singer left, and the rest of us took a little bit of a break and started to write new music. The electronic elements started to creep into the shows more and more – we suddenly realised it was an opportunity. But it was a slow process. If you listen to the stuff we did before, you would be like, “How is this the same people?”
It’s a very trendy sound – was that always the goal?
When we first started out we were a bit more wilfully retro. It’s kind of a cliché now, the throwback synthesiser stuff, but we started off a bit before that had become a trope in culture. As time went by we broadened our influences a lot more, and I think especially with the stuff we’re working on now, we are trying to make it quite contemporary. The next album will be taking a bigger step away from what we’re known for.
• Le Galaxie perform at McGettigan’s AUH, Al Raha Beach Hotel, Thursday, May 26, from 10pm, free entry; and at McGettigan’s JLT, Bonnington Tower, Friday, May 27,from 8.30pm, Dh50 (includes one drink)
rgarratt@thenational.ae
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
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The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
ULTRA PROCESSED FOODS
- Carbonated drinks, sweet or savoury packaged snacks, confectionery, mass-produced packaged breads and buns
- margarines and spreads; cookies, biscuits, pastries, cakes, and cake mixes, breakfast cereals, cereal and energy bars;
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- infant formulas and follow-on milks, health and slimming products such as powdered or fortified meal and dish substitutes,
- many ready-to-heat products including pre-prepared pies and pasta and pizza dishes, poultry and fish nuggets and sticks, sausages, burgers, hot dogs, and other reconstituted meat products, powdered and packaged instant soups, noodles and desserts.
Other workplace saving schemes
- The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
- Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
- National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
- In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
- Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
Tottenham's 10 biggest transfers (according to transfermarkt.com):
1). Moussa Sissokho - Newcastle United - £30 million (Dh143m): Flop
2). Roberto Soldado - Valencia - £25m: Flop
3). Erik Lamela - Roma - £25m: Jury still out
4). Son Heung-min - Bayer Leverkusen - £25m: Success
5). Darren Bent - Charlton Athletic - £21m: Flop
6). Vincent Janssen - AZ Alkmaar - £18m: Flop
7). David Bentley - Blackburn Rovers - £18m: Flop
8). Luka Modric - Dynamo Zagreb - £17m: Success
9). Paulinho - Corinthians - £16m: Flop
10). Mousa Dembele - Fulham - £16m: Success
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3ECompany%20name%3A%20CarbonSifr%3Cbr%3EStarted%3A%202022%3Cbr%3EBased%3A%20Dubai%3Cbr%3EFounders%3A%20Onur%20Elgun%2C%20Mustafa%20Bosca%20and%20Muhammed%20Yildirim%3Cbr%3ESector%3A%20Climate%20tech%3Cbr%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%241%20million%20raised%20in%20seed%20funding%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Usain Bolt's World Championships record
2007 Osaka
200m Silver
4x100m relay Silver
2009 Berlin
100m Gold
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
2011 Daegu
100m Disqualified in final for false start
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
2013 Moscow
100m Gold
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
2015 Beijing
100m Gold
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
57%20Seconds
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Rusty%20Cundieff%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EJosh%20Hutcherson%2C%20Morgan%20Freeman%2C%20Greg%20Germann%2C%20Lovie%20Simone%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2%2F5%0D%3Cbr%3E%0D%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Fire and Fury
By Michael Wolff,
Henry Holt
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
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The specs
Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
Power: 620hp from 5,750-7,500rpm
Torque: 760Nm from 3,000-5,750rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed dual-clutch auto
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The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
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You can buy, hold and use NFTs just like US dollars and Bitcoins. “They can appreciate in value and even produce cash flows.”
However, while money is fungible, NFTs are not. “One Bitcoin, dollar, euro or dirham is largely indistinguishable from the next. Nothing ties a dollar bill to a particular owner, for example. Nor does it tie you to to any goods, services or assets you bought with that currency. In contrast, NFTs confer specific ownership,” Mr Das says.
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Tesalam Aleik
Abdullah Al Ruwaished
(Rotana)
