Lärm: Dutch for Noise

While Minor Threat may have been in the States perfecting what hardcore was, this group found their way alone. Beginning in the early '80s in the Netherlands, Lärm may have arrived at their musical apex without the assistance of a densely populated scene and record executives sniffing around. It seems that since they didn't have the benefit of too many groups  around them, their aural aesthetic was contrived from purity as opposed to the crop of US bands emulating one another and copping various stances from different folks. There wasn't anything traditional about this group - but that's probably why they still get talked about today.

During the early '80s, some of the most extremist punk related music - not metal bands that used to listen to punk - was coming out of England. And as the Exploited devolved further and further into a mess of old men and shitty songs, the way they sounded at their peek - fast, raw and truncated - was as much of an antecedent as anything else to Lärm. The political stance of the group too could be related to the overtly anti-Thatcher stance that the Exploited and other concurrent punk groups were figuring in England. The fact that this group was straight edge, though, served to set them apart - well a bit anyway.

It's interesting to listen to bands that come after Lärm - Anal Cunt being one. The songs clocking in at under a minute and espousing a single point of view or perspective on a specific topic seems to have infiltrated a great many groups. Not all of them can be said to have some tangential relationship with these noise mongers, but it's safe to assume most thrash groups today are at least familiar with the band. A.C., though, has the tendency to simply make fun of things, people or ideas mentioned in their music. And the one short coming that these Netherland natives might be tagged with is being too serious about themselves and their music - I would imagine that the public health care that they've been afforded is adequate anyway.

 Lärm wasn't around for too long. And moreover, they didn't record too much - the band that resulted afterwards, Seein' Red, has a decent amount of material. A compilation including everything that they put down to tape was released in 2003 by Coalition Records and was titled Extreme Noise. I can't say that this is indispensible material and it should probably be saved for rare occasions. But after listening even briefly, it becomes plainly clear that the last crop of skuzzy punk acts - the Casualties, A Global Threat, etc - were all listening to these guys during their formative years.

It's odd, though, that Lärm decided to sing in English. Of course, the band was able to reach a wider audience. But at the same time, considering the fact that the band sought to tackle political issues specifically affecting themselves, a nationalistic approach to music would have made sense. Regardless, their music and approach to it helped spread the DIY ethic across Europe. So it doesn't matter what language they were singing in, it worked.