Gorillaz, the cartoon-styled supergroup, just announced that its new EP
The Fall, an album entirely recorded and mixed on an iPad, will be officially released on April 18th – thus far, only fan club members could download the album, non-members were only allowed to listen to audio streams.
The album features fifteen track recorded during the band’s tour late last year, and most songs are inspired by the cities Gorillaz performed at. Damon Albarn, the band frontman, used over a dozen iPad apps to put the record together, including AmpliTube, Gliss, SoundyThingie, Speak It!, Funx Box, Mugician and Xenon.
Thanks to the use of the iPad, the album was put together and released in a matter of weeks:
I literally made it on the road in America over a month. […] If I left it until the New Year to release it, then the cynics out there would say, ‘Oh well, it’s been tampered with.’ But if I put it out now, they’d know that I haven’t done anything because I’ve been on tour ever since.
The album sounds incredible, given the fact that the band didn’t use anything else but an iPad to mix it, and produce it. When asked about the nature of the album, Gorillaz member 2D mentioned the following:
Uhmmm….The first Gorillaz album, our debut record, was more Russel’s…like… lots of hip-hop, funk and Cuban dub stars. Demon Days right, came more from Noodle and her dark doomy demos that she made, and all of her contemplations on the world ‘in a place of night’. Plastic Beach came out mainly from Murdoc’s head, all of his mucky exploits and global collaborations and legendary mash-ups recorded on the Plastic Beach island in the middle of the ocean. Very rum and piratey… And this one The Fall, is mostly just me…something more gentle and just…well…it’s just me and an iPad really mucking about…trying out some stuff. Just looking at America and then tapping on the screen…I’m not really concentrating too hard on it….So, right, each album got all of us on it somewhere, but each time it’s… more of one of us than the others….Well, that’s how I see it anyway.”
Here is the complete tracklist for The Fall:
Phoner to Arizona
Revolving Doors
Hillbilly Man
Detroit
Shy-town
Little Pink Plastic Bag
The Joplin Spider
The Parish of Space Dust
The Snake in Dallas
Amarillo
The Speak It Mountains
Aspen Forest
Bobby in Phoenix
California and the Slipping of the Sun
Seattle Yodel
Here is one of the band’s video clips, Phoner to Arizona:
