At the tail end of last year, Dearborn, Michigan’s Prostitute announced details of their signing to Mute and the first worldwide release of their debut album, Attempted Martyr. Further international press and reviews since suggests the wider exposure has been well deserved, with ‘Mr. Dada’ making the playlist at BBC 6 Music. The band share further material from their incendiary album, this time in the form of the propulsive, punishing ‘Judge (Fast)’.
Attempted Martyr, produced by Chris Koltay (The Armed, Mdou Moctar), will be released on CD and two vinyl editions, a special limited Arabic edition on Lebanese sunburst vinyl exclusively through Dinked, and a red vinyl edition on 13 March. Prostitute announced a spring 2026 tour of Europe and UK that includes two dates at the MOTH Club, London on 28 April and 29 April. All the spring UK dates are now sold out, and the band announces a further London headliner for 26 August at The Dome with tickets going on sale this Friday 13 February at 10am.
The group’s debut album, Attempted Martyr, has been steadily accruing devoted followers and accolades since its (very limited) original release: Pitchfork and Anthony Fantano reviewed, while Stereogum and The Quietus spoke to the band. Loosely a concept album, Attempted Martyr is a full-spectrum blast of acerbic noise, sampler shrapnel, savagely mordant humour and bruised melancholy. Its complexity and simmered rage conjure a fever dream of hope, desperation and alienation, a riot of artful profanity, disturbing imagery and blacker-than-midnight wit. An album for these perilous, cursed times, even if it wasn’t conceived as such, Attempted Martyr isn’t noise for its own sake, it’s for everyone’s: a catharsis, a venting, a return of fire.
Based in Dearborn, MI, a town with America’s largest Muslim population, Prostitute were founded by Moe (frontman) and Andrew (drummer) who together write the group’s lyrics, and conceived Attempted Martyr’s thematic throughline. Moe explains:
“I had an identity crisis, growing up, 9/11 started a lot of xenophobia and Arab hatred and all that kind of shit. I hated being Arabic. I hated Arabs in general, just because people were hating me. Through much of my 20s I felt like, ‘How about I be the character you want me to be?’” Andrew took that crisis and, explains Moe: “ran with it, and made the philosophy behind it, this ‘radical terrorism’, this crazed zealot thing.”
To complete the band, Ross, Bret and Dylan soon came onboard. “It’s all a bit serendipitous,” says Andrew. Each of the members were raised in Dearborn, went to the same schools, orbited the same groups of people and crossed paths before eventually meeting each other and coming together as a band. The reaction has been incredible: the audience they have found are dedicated to investigating the infinite nuances within their attack, especially as the themes have swung to the fore of the culture in the years since they conceived it.
“When we started the album, the war in Gaza hadn’t begun yet,” says Andrew. “But the world was still pretty fucked up. It already felt like the car was going off the cliff, with no-one at the wheel. There’s an angst to the album. I’m not religious, but I’ve always been drawn to art and stories about religion – this yearning for transcendence, for an answer, for forgiveness. The album is about someone trying to transcend in some way. This character is reprehensible. But we’re not trying to tell anyone what to think. This isn’t some manifesto – this is art, it’s an outlet for things we were feeling.”
Prostitute Live Dates
April
16 – Bourges (FR), Printemps de Bourges
17 – Liège (BE), KulturA
18 – Tilburg (NL), Roadburn Festival
20 – Berlin (DE), Urban Spree
21 – Cologne (DE), Bumann & SOHN
22 – Antwerp (BE), Trix
23 – Paris (FR), Petit Bain
24 – Rennes (FR), Ubu
26 – Birmingham (UK), Supersonic Festival
27 – Brighton (UK), Green Door Store – SOLD OUT
28 – London (UK), Moth Club – SOLD OUT
29 – London (UK), Moth Club – SOLD OUT
May
1 – Manchester (UK), White Hotel – SOLD OUT
2 – Glasgow (UK), Hug and Pint – SOLD OUT
August
26 Aug – London (UK), The Dome
For more information on Prostitute please check their facebook and instagram.