Goodbye, Farewell

Album Review

Black Tie is described as a one-man band, that man being multi-instrumentalist Roger Apodaca. But on his albums, At Dawn and this follow-up, Goodbye, Farewell, he has called upon several of his colleagues on the Albuquerque, NM, indie music scene, relying in particular on the rhythm section of bassist Eric Reynolds, drummer Ryan Anthony, and on cellist Paul Newcomb, as well as guitarist Ryan Martino, who also produced the disc. Apodaca primarily writes instrumental pieces; only four tracks out of eleven have vocals. He focuses on creating moods and is especially interested in building his arrangements out of common chord progressions played slowly, so that the resonance and decay of individual notes are emphasized in what are sometimes basically ambient performances. At their most assertive, the tracks sometimes recall the middle passage in a long workout by Neil Young & Crazy Horse, the loping rhythms supporting angular guitar passages that seem to have no beginnings or endings. It wouldn't be surprising to find this album used as the basis for a movie soundtrack, especially if the movie was a low-budget independent feature with lots of nature photography of the more barren reaches of the American Southwest.