Gina X Performance ‎– Nice Mover (1979)

Nice Mover is the first of three albums by the Gina X Performance, released on November 16, 1979, on EMI.

The album features eight originals, split between campy club cuts (“I’m a Boy,” “No G.D.M.“) and slow, lucid, seductive soundscapes like “Exhibitionism” and “Casablanca.”

The slow, desolate “Casablanca” layers vocoderized vocals on a piano/synth-bass ostinato with a beaming fugue-like melody and oscillating overlays, all wrapped in an extended fadeout with Gina’s non-stop litany.

A tingling, voice-echoing intro unveils “Exhibitionism,” where a clipped, high-tone synth theme counters Gina’s lucid vocal melody. Across the slow-rolling rhythm and soft bass figure, Held layers on luminous electro sounds amid double-tracked vocals, cutting midway for a stylophone-sounding solo.

“Black Sheep” sports a bobbing one-five bassline (in C) at a stately middle pace, bedecked with bubbly/staccato rhythm-synths and accented broken English. Midway, the song breaks for an arching ARP melody.

On “Nice Mover,” Gina’s stretched, sensual vowels enmesh with vocoderized backing vocals, all set to a moderate beat on a slow recoiling bassline, marked with arpeggiated synth textures and a plunging chorus.

“Plastic Box Surprise” kicks in with an urgent wind-up rhythm, overlaid with oscillating sounds and bubbly figures that interlock with bright key-tones, all pitch-bent upward for the spiraling fadeout.

“Tropical Game Strip” starts to the sound of a jungle, where an arching piano figure (in low C) greets the rhythm-less first verse with vocals that veer between spoken and sung.

Throughout Nice Mover, Held renders various electronic effects in a faint, remote manner where everything complements and nothing overpowers. Kikoine, charming in her stunted sense of pitch and phasing, works best in her low, seductive, almost lucid moments.

The Nice Mover cover shows a fashion-forward Kikoine sporting mesh gloves and an unzipped, studded leather jacket over a lace bra, foreshadowing ’80s-era Madonna wardrobes by more than half a decade. Photographer Dieter Eikelpoth (Key, Silvia) and the typographic firm Ink Studios (Cream, Family, Jack Bruce, Kraftwerk) are credited with visuals. Gina X Performance recorded Nice Mover in the summer of 1978 at the Sound Experience Studio am Dom, Cologne. Held’s arsenal includes Mini Moog, Polymoog, ARP synthesizer 2600, ARP String Ensemble, ARP sequencer, Fender Rhodes piano, grand piano, Hammond A 100, and Sennheiser vocoder. The album was co-produced by Held and Martin Hömberg with synthesizer programming by Heinz Trewer.

Tracklist:
A1. “Nice Mover” (4:30)
A2. “No G.D.M. (Dedicated to Quentin Crisp)” (5:55)
A3. “Plastic Surprise Box” (3:05)
A4. “Casablanca” (5:35)
B1. “Be a Boy” (4:00)
B2. “Exhibitionism” (5:00)
B3. “Black Sheep” (3:45)
B4. “Tropical Comic Strip” (5:05)

Credits:
Vocals, Concept By – Gina Kikoine
Backing Vocals [Additional And Backing Vocals] – “Big Brother”
Drums – László Czigány
Keyboards – Zeus B. Held
Sequencer [Additional Sequencer Programming] – Martin Hömberg
Synthesizer, Programmed By – Heinz Trewer

Make-up – Victoria van Ayerst
Producer – Martin Hömberg, Zeus B. Held
Recorded By, Mixed By – Martin Hömberg
Art Direction, Photography By – Dieter Eikelpoth