Listen to the Gorillaz iPad-produced album

By Molly McHugh December 28, 2010

Gorillaz’s new album, The Fall, is now available to anyone with an e-mail address for free. And rightly so, since it cost little more to produce. The Fall was made almost entirely using the iPad and recording apps from the App Store (a handful of instruments were also incorporated).

Naturally, the album has a less-produced sound to it than Gorillaz’s past work, which isn’t to say it’s inferior. It’s a more basic take on the band’s music and features fewer up-tempo, electronically sophisticated songs, but it’s still easily identifiable as a Gorillaz compilation. And in addition to being primarily produced on an iPad, it’s worth noting that The Fall was made in a mere 32 days.

Gorillaz’s frontman Damon Albarn told NME the Apple tablet was inspiration for the album’s creation. “I fell in love with my iPad as soon as I got it, so I’ve made a completely different kind of record.” Using the iPad as a personal recording studio isn’t a novel concept, but doing so and mass distributing an album is. While Gorillaz isn’t the first to do this, they are arguably the most well known. It’s likely that this will continue to become a trend with more artists and aspiring musicians, which could yield two results: continued creation of more affordable music, and (very possibly) an array of awful albums as well.

Here’s a list of all the apps the band used in the process:

Speak it! – $1.99
SoundyThingie – $2.99
Mugician – Free
Solo Synth – (We couldn’t find this one in the App Store; other outlets haven’t been able to either.)
Synth – $0.99
Funk Box – $2.99
Gliss – $0.99
AmpliTude – $1.99
Xenon – $4.99
iElectribe $19.99
BS-16i – $4.99
M3000 HD – $11.99
Cleartune – $3.99
iOrgel HD – $2.99
Olsynth – $6.99
StudioMini XL – $5.99
BassLine – $0.99
Harmonizer – Free
Dub Siren Pro – $3.99
Moog Filatron – $4.99

[UPDATE: We’re hearing some of you and others say the missing app is Sylo Synth, which is free. Gorillaz’s website lists “Solo Synth,” as you can see from the screen shot, but it’s looking like that might be a typo.]

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Before coming to Digital Trends, Molly worked as a freelance writer, occasional photographer, and general technical lackey…

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