Search - Gina X Performance :: Voyeur

Obscure new wave synth band gets a reissue

Daniel W. Kelly | Long Island, NY United States | 07/11/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Gina X was a blip on the new wave radar, mostly because much of the music is extremely experimental electro, and the fact that much of it is not in English. Quirky female vocals can easily be compared to Nina Hagen or Lene Lovich and the music has hints of a diversity of new wave acts from early B-52s to Gary Numan. With 80s synth dance producer Zeus B. Held as part of the band line-up, the 4 Gina X Performance CDs are must haves for 80s lovers. Each CD will definitely have a couple of songs that you would like to include in a complete eclectic 80s mix.



Moving deeper into the 80s with this release, Gina X Performance gives more umph to the drum machine beats, but this is not their most danceable effort--although "IC Code" is one of their strongest new wave tracks--sung in English. Several of the songs on here are experimental with mostly spoken vocal and a trippy ambiance.



What's so odd about these rereleases is the choice of bonus tracks. This particular release includes remixes of songs from their OTHER albums. 'No GDM' will most likely be familiar to fans of Erasure, because they covered this song as a B-side in the late 80s, and it was ALSO covered a few years earlier by The Bollock Brothers. So you can see how influential Gina X actually was on the new wave synth band scene. The dubs are not particularly entertaining. And this original 12" mix of 'Harley Davidson' (which actually got airplay on a local new wave station in New York) is just not as good as the original album version, but DEFINITELY a crucial bonus track so that it is preserved on CD for those who actually owned the original vinyl 12". What would have been nice is to have the English language 7" version included as well, which WAS on the vinyl 12" and is not on any of these rereleases. Bummer."