Un.Real - Epico EP

With the proud claim to being Puerto Rico's first shoegaze band, Un.Real have been active in various guises since 1995, when they took their bow at the legendary Longbranch Pub. Now, the best part of two decades later, the band are back with a new EP and six tracks of fabulous, fuzzed-out psychedelia.

Largely instrumental, Epico takes references from post-rock, ambient and dream pop to deliver a brand of guitar music as delicate as it is devastating. From the sombre echo of M.A.A.L., with its firebrand finale, to the languid funk of Echoplex, there's diversity in songcraft, yet a subtlety in transition, as tracks segue together effortlessly.

Opening track Si broods with crackling anticipation before the gentle psych of Piloto brings Floydian melodies and immersive, contorted vocals. Elsewhere the pedal-heavy Somnifero delivers bruising power chords before the EP closes to the hypnotic strain of Angel '75.

Epico EP is out now and available as a 'name your price' download through Bandcamp. You can also visit the band on Facebook.

Naked On My Own & Dopedrone - Changeless (SPC ECO Sun Mix)

It's just three months since Nugazer last spoke to Jarek Leskiewicz, creative force behind Naked On My Own, about his innovative partnership with Martin Anderson of Dopedrone.

Key to Leskiewicz's ambitions has been to the desire to collaborate with an extensive range of artists and producers, to evolve both his own songwriting and to exchange ideas with an ever-growing collective of like-minded musicians.

The latest artist to collude is SPC ECO, whose dense reworking of Changeless pits Dean Garcia's rumbling bass over the simmering drone of Leskiewicz and Anderson's production. Mixed at Garcia's ELaB studios in London and featuring the additional, breathless vocals of Rose Berlin, Changeless is a typically dark cut, featuring elements of doom, brooding shoegaze and stabs of squalling FX.

Changeless (SPC ECO Sun  Mix) is available now for free download via Naked On My Own's Bandcamp page.