Anna Prior

“lovelorn Balearic tracks” The Guardian 

"mystical and blissful" DJ Mag

“The Metronomy drummer delivers '80s synthwave-inspired tracks on her solo EP” Resident Advisor 
 

JUNE 13 - DJ, producer and drummer Anna Prior releases new EP Almost Love via House Anxiety (Genesis Owusu, Courtney Barnett, Harvey Sutherland).

The seven track collection showcases Anna’s percussive approach to electronic music, which is an extension of her crate-digging Soho Radio show - The Beat Palace (also the name of the label she founded championing female and non-binary DJs and producers). She describes her DJ sets as ‘explorative missions into the rhythmic unknown…’, and the hooky pop sensibilities come from a ‘90s musical education - with the synth lead instrumentation equally recalling the 80s and mid 2000s.

Talking on the cathartic themes running through the EP, Anna says:

"This EP was written as a reaction to my growing obsession with dance music and night life culture. It’s an exploration of me trying to figure out how to enjoy club culture in a sober way - what would be the music that I’d like to hear without the influence of substances. It’s a study of the perfect night out for me,  During the lyric writing process, I found that I felt the need to let a few demons out of my closet (those demons can be seen in the video for ‘Tech Não’). Although, the music for Almost Love began in 2020, lyrically, I only put words to the music in 2023. It become a sort of love letter to myself, a way of shoving emotions into musical boxes and finally letting some things go.”

Across the Almost Love EP the Metronomy drummer worked with James Greenwood (AKA Ghost Culture)  whose previous credits include Dan Avery, Kelly Lee Owens, HAAi and Alison Goldfrapp.  It It also features collaboration with Lisbon based producer Moullinex, and Parisian trio PPJ – trio Páula, Povoa and Jerge who have worked previously with the likes of Christine and the Queens and Myd.

Support in the build-up has come in from The Guardian, DJ Mag, Stereogum, NME, CRACK, Resident Advisor, Disco Pogo and more at press, with BBC 6 Music offering strong backing on the airwaves.

Lyrically inspired by the existential poetry of 19th and 20th century Portuguese romantics, which she discovered during treasured time spent in Lisbon, this latest EP is essentially Anna’s love letter to herself. She describes it as being about things, people and moments being just out of reach – of ‘almost’ being there, but not just yet. Not quite.

Visually, Anna has partnered with Tom Furse with a series of unsettling A.I. directed video -  further establishing the aesthetic world she is building, centred around eerie liminal hours spent in clubs. 

The final instalment comes on EP release date, with the video for ’Nervous’.

"The video for Nervous is the party to end all parties - PARTY (The Best Of). It’s everything we discovered in the previous 3 videos and then some. I wanted it to feel like you’re laying in your bed (or on a stranger’s sofa?) the morning after the party, when the flashbacks start and you’re trying to piece together the night before."

Press shots in collaboration with Daniel Mutton (photographer) and Morgan Hislop (creative director) also tread a consistent visual line.

Live set highlights have come in support of 2manydjs in Paris, Palm Trax in Lisbon, as well as at Latitude, Spiritland, and on NYCs fabled The Lot Radio.

Almost Love - the new EP from Anna Prior - is out now via House Anxiety.