Following the release of ‘Sleepthick Vioces’, the first release from Sonar Nation since signing to the Abstract Sounds Label, and several recent London dates, the band have announced details of their debut UK tour. The dates are with Pet Lamb and Elevate and will commence in late April. They will play London on the 6th of May at the Highbury Garage.
Never frightened to slow the pace and bring a song down, or let it explode with scary intensity, Sonar Nation are being regarded as one of the foremost British bands bringing new concepts and fresh ideas to guitar based music. The current EP and the debut album, ‘Cylinders in Blue’ were recorded in a matter of days to capture the strength, the anger and the spontaneity of the band’s live performance.
LONDON GIG GUIDE

You could say several things about Sonar Nation, but ‘limp-wristed, lip-pursing purveyors of nonce-tastic noodlings’ would be unlikely to feature prominently within your blatherings. In other words, the foxy Kent scene has decided to deal us another fierce pseudo-hardcore hand. Probably.
It all fits, too: all across Britain gangs of grubby sorts are grabbing guitars and making severe “SPRANG!! KA-DAAANG!!!” noises. From Exeter’s Wordbug to Dundee’s Broccoli (plus several pained points in between – notably Nottingham’s Bob Tilton and, also featured on tonight’s bill, Derby’s supremely driven Cable), the UK’s youth are taking the belligerent American blueprint and tearing it into rather small pieces.
Gleeful anger is the name of this particular game: check the anguished expression on bassist Simon Clatworthy’s face and wonder whether he’s about to burst into tears or decapitate the nearest lamp post.
Then stare aghast at singer Shaun Tucker as he bellows his way through a set seemingly so consumed by all the cheery things in life (see: frustration, fury, cynicism, sodding bastard reality) that at times Sonar Nation are storming through their stop-start riffs with all the delicacy of Rollins flexing his pecs. Not pretty, but unerringly effective all the same.
New single ‘Sleepthick Voices’ is a case in point; a grim, gripping tirade of lunging rock instincts, it rolls through a maze of time changes and mood swings whilst maintaining the kind of jagged tension that makes even the wasp-chewing Compulsion appear, well, cowardly. Smart.
Sonar? So good.
NME

Yelling Submarine
“We’ve done a lot of shitty pub gigs”, growls Simon Clatworthy, grimacing guitar-racketeer in SONAR NATION
“A lot of the new bands around now haven’t even heard of half the places we’ve played! They get the breaks so early. They haven’t done 50 South London pubs like we have, on Monday nights travelling up to play to five people who all wanna hear AC/DC covers. Which, luckily, we aren’t bad at…”
Fact: The Right Time comes to us all. Eventually. Just ask kinetic Kent fivesome Sonar Nation, four years down the Tranzophobic line and still itching for a piece of the hard-edged action when most bands in their position would have swopped their entire wardrobes and headed for the nearest bandwagon stop.
Mind you… “it was two years before we were any good,” admits singer Shaun Tucker. “And even then, we weren’t that good!”
“We’re never going back to the Cartoon in Croydon again,” announces second guitarist Phil Clarke, determinedly.
“We did our sound check,” explains Simon, “and they said ‘Thanks a lot lads’, Then they paid us and told us to f___ off!’ beams Phil. Excellent!

The fantastic thing is that fashion has decided to swing Sonar Nation’s way. After a couple of fierce EP’s, they startled Springtime with the splendid intensity of ‘Sleepthick Voices’, a single which took the essence of hardcore and made it do the dance of the mad badger with a series of punter-unfriendly dynamics. Now comes ‘Cylinder in Blue’, the LP version of Sonar Nation’s traumatic, tumultuous, ball-gripping noise. Frustration, they readily admit, is the key to it all.
“The danger’s all gone,” gripes Simon. “Bands like The Birthday Party really moved you, it was something to get into. But now I think the kids are easily pleased.”
Not all of them, if the current upsurge of brattish British bands is anything to go by. The likes of Bob Tilton, Joeyfat and Baby Harp Seal are all doing their unfair share of anguished guitar-punishing, and so Sonar Nation (also featuring bassist George Frame and drummer Jamie Emery) suddenly find themselves – albeit unwittingly – in the company of other likeminded (see unhinged, hectic, desperate) souls looking for an audience to terrorise.
“We didn’t set out to make angry music,” claims Phil.
“There’s just this constant friction between us, “ nots Simon, “do we have fights? Not physical ones ‘cos I’m the handiest of this lot by far… but I do like it to hurt. The other night I cut all my fingers and it was good. It sounded shit, but it hurt so we must have played well!”
Their wide range of influences, they joke, stretches “from the first Fugazi album to the third Fugazi album”. ‘Cylinder in Blue’, they reckon, is “ambitious, intense and took three days to record”. They claim they haven’t got any idea of what they want to do, or how to do it. And they most certainly do not swear to impress.
Simon: “After the 13th ‘f_’ it doesn’t have much effect, does it?’
Shaun: “No… Mind you, the 12th ‘f_!’ is great!”
NME

After a long time on the grinding toilet circuit, Sonar Nation, from Maidstone Kent, have finally come up with the goods. Two self-financed Eps on their own label hinted at something. Their next EP, “Sleepthick Voices”, on the ever astute, Abstract labEL shouted their lot a tad louder. Finally their debut album, ‘Cylinders in Blue’, states their case with a ferocious blast recorded in three days to capture their live intensity. And it’s causing a few ripples with it’s powerful, emotionally charged rush of guitar rock.
“I like to make the music exciting, I want it to get the adrenalin going, but I want lyrics to make you cry with their sheer emotional strength,’ claims frontman Shaun Tucker.
Tucker’s lyrics are a key point in defining their link of attack. ‘Lyrically, the songs have a romantic view on life. I think it’s a horrible mundane world but, when you are in a relationship, you can let all that just pass you by. Maybe that’s one way of surviving… we can only f••• ourselves up.’
MELODY MAKER

Sonar Nation are supposed to be pretty breathtaking. Their press release says so. Their ‘Thoughts on Anyone EP’ (TMSY) is a pretty good argument for the defence. Opening track ‘Detonator’ builds up a listener-friendly guitar/vocal relationship and then kicks the attentive ear till it comes clean off the head with an explosion of snarling chords and livid lyrics from frontman Shaun Tucker.’ Makes Zack De La Rocha sound like Mary Fucking Poppins’
HOT NORTH

Sonar Nation – Thoughts on Anyone EP (TMSY)
Sonar Nation have a powerful melodic hook that punches you square in the mouth. Shaun Tucker’s voice is halfway between Greg Dulli’s smouldering soul and Brendan Canty’s roar, while the backing screams on ‘People Never Stay’ are positively blood-curdling. Best track is ‘Close Shave’ – an opus for all those suffering the emotional turmoil of modern relationships.
DUCHESS IN DETAIL

Sonar are buzzing…
Sonar Nation, not to be mixed up with Sonic Youth, are Maidstone’s finest and they prove it with this latest offering. Their second EP entitled ‘Thoughts on Anyone’ has funnily enough, been released on their ‘Too much Sonic Youth records’ label. So what’s it like. Well it’s got a thrashy feel about it with some blood-curdling surprises throughout. The shocking bits revolve around the background scream, which at half volume could kill your granny at 20 paces. At times the tunes have a dark, twisted edge, which you may find you like – worth a listen anyway.
CAMDEN CHRONICLE


“They make Zack De La Rocha sound like Mary fucken Poppins” HOT NORTH

Set for greater things Sonar Nation are a revelation. A five-piece sonic guitar band who understand the power of understatement and gentleness.
Usually with loud guitar bands they keep a little in reserve to whip up a maelstrom of noise.
This Nation’s saving grace is knowing when to keep something back. So when the expected explosion fails to apprear it’s all the more shocking.
Singer Shaun Tucker roams around the floor like King Lear in the wilderness. I haven’t heard lyrics containing so much rage and self-loathing so positively channelled since Nick Cave’s heyday. ‘Bit my tongue today, no blood came’ he winces starkly.
One song blasts people’s attitudes: ‘Bad sex is better than no sex’.
On reflection I’m glad I didn’t stay at home and watch Thora Hird on telly.
The single ‘Some Place Not Home’ is stunning, (Incidently, the EP has been given some distribution by Southern, who ‘do’ Babes in Toyland, so expect to hear it on the Simon Bates’ show any day now!)
A pair of guitarists, one of whom is built like a row of terraced houses, punish their instruments, and I’m thinking it’s impossible to play faster.
Sonar Nation are a ‘local’ band who are surely destined to be of national importance. You can’t afford to miss them.
GIG REVIEW - QUIGLEY’S, MAIDSTONE