Now, The Crying Nudes are back with DJ, another strangely compact release that appeared with very little warning. Teased on the band’s Instagram only yesterday, the new album features eight tracks packed into less than thirteen minutes. Once again, it arrives through World Music, the elusive London label run by Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland.

Even shorter than their 2024 self titled release, DJ disappears almost as quickly as it begins, and that is definitely part of its charm. These gorgeous songs feel like thoughts or memories caught on tape, blending subtle dream pop melodies with touches of country and folk, all wrapped in a sparse yet beautiful guitar atmosphere. The tracks are simply named after numbers, an approach we already encountered on lucre, Blunt’s collaborative EP with Elias Rønnenfelt. The only exception is the third song, “when i dance i raise the dead”. Naturally, everything is written without capital letters, perfectly in keeping with the band’s understated world. And as always with The Crying Nudes, the result is completely haunting. Stream DJ below.

Though separated by nearly 3,000 kilometers (Jeff Louis is based in Austin and Leanne Macomber in Philadelphia), their creative connection remains undeniable. Across that distance, the pair maintain their gauzy synth textures, drum machine pulse, and intimate emotional tone.

The duo formed in 2007 when Macomber (also of Young Ejecta and Wet Eggs) was seeking a new direction for her lyrics and found a collaborator in Louis, whose arrangements help define their sound.

After a 14-year hiatus, Fight Bite returned with their new release, Party!, on 21 April 2026. During that time, Macomber relocated and worked with her other projects, but the duo continued exchanging music remotely.

“We’re not so much a band about evolution as we are about continuing to see how we connect and where we meet. Like a very innate childhood connection, it just sort of lives forever and grows.” – Leanne Macomber

Macomber has described the break as necessary, saying, “we really wanted to distill the best of both of our efforts.” The album was built through email exchanges. Sometimes Louis would send musical sketches for Macomber to add lyrics to, and other times she sent full demos for him to reshape. She calls it a “double blind process,” resulting in a record that balances dreamlike nostalgia with fresh, subtle experimentation.

The stand out track on the album is “Party (I Have Never),” which begins with a pulsing beat and the brilliant, haunting line “I have never been naked in front of a man before.” Another beautiful track is “Killer Whale,” which sounds like an undiscovered Julee Cruise track and features a spoken word section that echoes back to 60s girl groups like The Shangri-Las.

On Party!,the influence of Mazzy Star and This Mortal Coil are undeniable, but their influences are much broader. Macomber draws inspiration from cinema, which she works in, saying, “I’m always inspired by how the mind collages experiences and film is sort of the pinnacle expression of that.”

Louis highlights David Lynch’s film soundtracks as a key influence and adds that, despite Austin’s vibrant music scene, Macomber’s songwriting remains his biggest inspiration. Looking ahead, Macomber hopes to tour in the autumn, while Louis notes they have enough material for two albums.

“This series has meant the world to me ever since I moved to Berlin and really began DJing,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “So being invited to contribute feels surreal in the best way. The mix is a celebration of the music that shaped me, tracing a journey from Peru to Berlin and through all the cities I’ve been lucky enough to play along the way.”

The tracks transition from dance-fueled peaks to softer, personal moments of introspection for Kourtesis, shaped by the grief she felt after losing her mother. The mix includes four exclusive tracks that Kourtesis created herself including “It’s You,” “Texas Changing,” “A Brief Look In Your Eyes” and “Los Poemas No Siempre Riman (DJ-Kicks),” which she recorded with Afro-Peruvian group Novalima. Other music from talented producers that we at HighClouds love are also featured on the mix including Jon Hopkins, Daphni (Cariobu), Myd, Axel Boman, Avalon Emerson, Nick León, and many others. Check out the full mix below.

It is on the latter imprint that Zoumer, the alias of Danish Algerian artist and producer Yasmina Derradj, is releasing music. While her sound could loosely be described as electro pop, that would feel a little reductive. Blending alt pop with left field electronics and warped North African percussion, Derradj first made waves with her debut album Green World, a 2024 record that moved between intimacy and intensity while drawing from personal stories, cultural roots and a sense of myth and imagination.

Now she turns the page with her sophomore album e.a.l. (euro arab lovergirl), out today via Big Oil. One of the first songs written for the record was “honestygirl”, a track sparked by moments of heartbreak and emotional slights, yet delivered with confidence and humour. That feeling flows through the album’s tracks as Zoumer works through identity, love and vulnerability on a journey that feels both like a private diary and a vivid fantasy (the title track is also a must). In “honestygirl”, we especially love the many small details woven into the production, subtle textures and sounds that give the track a cinematic atmosphere and bring its emotional world to life. It’s a track that turns raw feelings into something vivid and immersive. It’s the kind of track that rewards close listening, where every small sonic detail adds another layer to the world Zoumer is building across e.a.l..

Titled in filth your mystery is kingdom / far smile peasant in yellow music, the record stands apart from almost anything we’ve heard in recent months, unfolding in a fragile, otherworldly space of its own. Written and recorded between 2019 and 2024 on a Tascam 424 in New York, Norway and Athens, Georgia, the songs feel like small sonic worlds slowly revealing themselves. Zuniga layers voices into ghostly harmonies while synths glimmer beneath moody, time bent guitars. Many of the tracks revolve around hypnotic repetition, spinning gently before dissolving into the next moment. If you have a soft spot for dreamy, spectral music that seems to float somewhere between worlds, this is a highly recommended listen. Already available digitally, the album will arrive in full physical form on April 10, 2026, with vinyl, CD and cassette editions.

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The new single “George Sand” captures that pulse perfectly. Inspired by the radical 19th century writer and her manifesto for the survival of the Fontainebleau forest, the song is an ode to life, to nature, to the plants and trees that steady us. As the band explains, “The writer George Sand was not only a strong, feminist and radical person, she was also a renowned botanist. This song is inspired by her manifesto for the survival of the Fontainebleau forest, an ode to life and nature, to the plants and trees that guide us. A song full of thirst for life, about the force of nature and the therapeutic benefits it provides.” Built around a driving bass line and 606 drum machine, the track gradually ignites, especially when Dimitri Milbrun’s fiery saxophone enters the frame. The sax’s freedom feels vital, almost untamed, breathing fresh air into the song and giving it even more life. “At the end of the song, the guitar and saxophone blend together to form a force that destroys everything in its path,” they add. In both the song and its visual, you can feel the mantra that runs through Amaro beating loud and clear: I want to love, I want to live. Life pushes forward, even in the face of loss.

One of the standout moments is the new single “Clovarid”, created with bi coastal touring pianist Puck. The track has a gentle pull to it, blending tender piano touches with Molto Ohm’s textured electronic production. It feels comforting at first, with the sound of waves softly wrapping around you, but as usual there’s also something slightly off balance in the darker synths and lyrics, that keeps you leaning in.

His incredible skill shines bright through 13 songs on the album alongside voices new and old to him. It features Dua Lipa, PinkPantheress, Clairo, Caroline Polachek, Oklou & MNEK, Julia Michaels, Kacha (from the electro-pop group Coals) and even one of his own daughters.

Harle, aka “Huge Danny,” considers Cerulean to be his true debut album, following up his 2021 release of Harlecore, and is promoting it as his most definitive artistic statement to date. The album does sound like it comes from another world full of sounds that are certainly welcome to human ears here. “I love how it feels on the threshold between dreams and reality,” said Harle. “There can be a scene where there’s nothing alien in it, but it feels like a portal to something else.”

Cerulean feels like the next natural chapter in Harle’s storied career, which began in the 2010s when he emerged from the PC Music collective and went on to work with some of the biggest names in pop including Charli XCX, Carly Rae Jepsen, FKA Twigs, Florence and The Machine and many of the voices featured on the album.

Check out the full album film, out via NTS YouTube, and tour dates below.

Danny L Harle – LIVE DATES
Feb. 13* – London, UK – HERE at Outernet
Feb. 14* – Manchester, UK – New Century
Feb. 15* – Glasgow, UK – The Art School
Feb. 19* – Paris, France – La Gaîté Lyrique
Feb. 20* – Dublin, Ireland – The Button Factory
Feb. 21* – Berlin, Germany – Säälchen
Feb. 27 – Brooklyn, NY – Elsewhere
Mar. 3 – Los Angeles, CA – El Rey Theatre
* = with Lauren Duffus