à;GRUMH...
Black Vinyl Under Cover

Listening notes

à;GRUMH... released Black Vinyl Under Cover in 1987 on Play It Again Sam Records, catalogued as BIAS 72. The Belgian label, which became a significant home for EBM and electronic acts during this period, issued the record as a standard vinyl release spanning ten tracks across two sides.

The tracklist opens with "Bach Catalogue," a brief piece at two minutes and forty-two seconds, before moving into "Hammam," the longest track on the A-side at five minutes and forty seconds. "Generation" and "R.L.P.K." follow at three minutes and six seconds and three minutes and twenty seconds respectively, with the A-side closing on "The Bumf (We Know What Life Is)" at three minutes and fifty-eight seconds. The B-side begins with "Countrol" at four minutes and eleven seconds, then takes a conspicuous turn with "Yesterday," a track lasting only sixteen seconds. "The Drive" is the longest individual piece on the record at five minutes and fifty-six seconds. "M.D.A." runs four minutes and fifty-eight seconds, and "An Island Called..." closes the record at four minutes and thirty-nine seconds.

The album is categorized under EBM, Electro, and Electronic, genres that Play It Again Sam was actively cultivating through its roster during the latter half of the 1980s. The sixteen-second runtime of "Yesterday" stands as a notable structural curiosity within the tracklist, whatever its intent.

Black Vinyl Under Cover sits in the catalog under BIAS 72, placing it within a numbered sequence that collectors and researchers may use to situate it chronologically among the label's other releases from this era.