''Western Ware'' is an

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...

electropop Electropop is a hybrid music genre combining elements of electronic and pop genres. Writer Hollin Jones has described it as a variant of synth-pop with heavy emphasis on its electronic sound. The genre was developed in the 1980s and saw a re ...

band

Hyperbubble Hyperbubble is an international visual and performing arts electropop/synth-pop duo from San Antonio, Texas, formed by Jeff DeCuir and Jess Barnett DeCuir. The music of this American group is variously described as "early Eurythmics meets Josie and ...

from Fellowshipwreck released on February 26, 2017. An aim of the collection was to follow through on the promise of band member Jess DeCuir to "plan to produce, mix and create the first electro

Country & Western Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, old ...

LP" since the work of

Gil Trythall Harry Gilbert Trythall (October 28, 1930 – February 17, 2023) was an American composer and pianist of contemporary classical music. Early life and education Harry Gilbert Trythall was born on October 28, 1930, in Knoxville, Tennessee, the older ...

. One reviewer noted that the recording also marked a change for Hyperbubble in that while Jess is regarded as "the voice of band, ...on this album Jeff (DeCuir) cleans up rather nicely as lead vocalist on a good number of tracks." The album includes Aleah Metzger Hendricks on all

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

for "Queen of the Roller Derby" and adding backing vocals to four other tracks. Their

cover Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of co ...

of " Rhinestone Cowboy" features

Rikki & Daz Rikki & Daz, was a pop music duo, formed in 2002 by John Matthews and Daz Sampson. John Matthews of the Cuban Boys fame and also known as Ricardo Autobahn, became Rikki in the duo. He teamed up with Sampson, named just Daz in the duo and went on ...

's John Matthews (Ricardo Autobahn) accompanying on

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

and Daz Sampson as MC. Their contribution was recorded at Glen Campbell's home at the time they recorded their own UK Top 20 version of the hit song. Most tracks cover popular songs by noted country music artists with two exceptions. One is the short track "Luminaria," recorded live at the San Antonio Museum of Art during the citywide event of the same name. The second is the debut of "Digital Cowboy," the title track composed but never produced by

Our Daughter's Wedding Our Daughter's Wedding was an American synthpop trio, consisting of Layne Rico on Synare synthesizer, Keith Silva on vocals and keyboards, and Scott Simon on bass-synth and saxophone. Though the group was based in New York, Silva and Rico were f ...

for their 1981 album. Retrieved March 11, 2017. For this song, Our Daughter's Wedding member Scott Simon performs with Hyperbubble on lead synthesizer. The album title incidentally copies that of a single Hyperbubble previously recorded for a 2011 compilation entitled ''Western'', produced by Winter Records.

Critical reception

The release was called "a rare crossover" Country and Western album that "is synthpop at its core;" "a wild west of urban cowboys, honkey-tonk angels and truck-driving women." Through "a hoedown of bouncy and bombastic country-western covers," band members Jess and Jeff DeCuir dubbed "electronic music's own

Carter Carter(s), or Carter's, Tha Carter, or The Carter(s), may refer to: Geography United States * Carter, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Carter, Mississippi, an unincorporated community * Carter, Montana, a census-designated place * Carter, ...

Cash In economics, cash is money in the physical form of currency, such as banknotes and coins. In bookkeeping and financial accounting, cash is current assets comprising currency or currency equivalents that can be accessed immediately or near-imm ...

" eschew the "twang and wail of traditional country instruments." As a substitute "on the 'Nashville in the 23rd Century' rendition of 'Boney Fingers,' Jess DeCuir's theremin is a most perfect Country instrument as it hauntingly twangs." Pansentient League reviewer Jer White wrote that "Hyperbubble are fast becoming the masters of conceptual synthpop, what with this delightful album and things like last year's synthpop coloring book ''Music to Color By''." Their "The Electric Horseman" was described as "a meaty take on the instrumental from the Robert Redford film of the same name" and that it represents an "extended (version) from the original which incidentally also featured a sequencer line." Chain D.L.K. gave the album 3 out of 5 stars and Pansentient League named it a Top Ten for 2017. Retrieved January 11, 2018.

Track listing

Personnel

Musicians

* Jess DeCuir –

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...

, synthesizers,

theremin The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone/etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named afte ...

stylophone The Stylophone is a miniature analog electronic keyboard musical instrument played with a stylus. Invented in 1967 by Brian Jarvis, it entered production in 1968, manufactured by Dubreq. Some three million Stylophones were sold, mostly as chi ...

* Jeff DeCuir – lead vocals,

sequencer Sequencer may refer to: Technology * Drum sequencer (controller), an electromechanical system for controlling a sequence of events automatically * DNA sequencer, a machine used to automatically produce a sequence readout from a biological DNA sam ...

, synthesizers, drumtronics

Additional personnel

* Aleah Metzger Hendricks – vocals * Scott Simon – synthesizer * Daz Sampson – MC * John Matthews – synthesizer

Production

* Producers – Jess and Jeff DeCuir * Head engineer – Hyperbubble * Engineer for Daz Sampson vocals – Ricardo Autobahn * Photography – Hyperbubble, Joe Wallace

References

{{Authority control Synth-pop albums by American artists 2017 albums