Prostitute – Attempted Marty

The word “emotive” suggests a particular aesthetic – not one you would necessarily associate with the brutal noise rock of Prostitute … And yet this music is full of feeling all the same.

Yes, it is not only the name of this band from the US city of Dearborn that is intense, not only the title of their debut album Attempted Martyr, but their sound too: aggressive and bloodied, a ferocious wall of sound in which many of the elements can barely be identified. Are those guitars? Or screaming pigs? It is impossible to tell.

Attempted Martyr is a 42-minute crescendo; the intensity remains high throughout – to call it provocative art would be an understatement – and yet the record still assumes different shapes. It is above all their influences from Arabic music that make Prostitute such a singular band; again and again, sounds from Africa and the Middle East surface. At times the group resemble a hardcore version of Mdou Moctar.

Prostitute are certainly experimental, but that does not in the slightest diminish their physical force. Older noise-rock listeners may be reminded of Swans, younger ones perhaps of Chat Pile. In terms of content, though, Prostitute are scarcely comparable: they speak of terror, of the collapse of the western world, of racism. The band themselves describe the album as a »theatricalisation of terrorism«. It is admittedly difficult to evaluate something so intent on shattering you. But the record is addictive.