Cobweb-day (revisited)
release date : 20 June 2025
30 years after its release, Prohibition’s Cobweb-day album, the band’s flagship album and the first release from the Prohibited Records label, is being re-released in a brand new mix and mastering, with a host of bonus features and a whole great story to tell.
In 1995, when Cobweb-day was released, Fabrice Laureau was 24, Nicolas Laureau 21, Ludovic Morillon 22, and Quentin Rollet, who had just joined them on this new album, was 21. Prohibition, founded in 1989, had already released two albums: Turtle in 1993 and Nobodinside in 1994, on the Distorsion label.
Cobweb-day, literally “Spider-web Day,” is poetic, satirical, and libertarian.
A title conceived by Nicolas to express all the feelings and themes explored on the album, this neologism also echoes the artwork on the cover.
The lyrics describe, in vitriolic poetry and with a touch of self-deprecation, a world based on the powers of commodification and order, on submission to modern Molochs. Thirty years ago, it addressed themes such as the trade in minds and bodies, Kafkaesque justice, state violence, and Western blindness.
Is this a coincidence that might raise a smile? Fabrice and Nicolas were both conscientious objectors at the time the album was written.
The not so childish drawing that adorns the cover was created by Fabrice in 1989. It evokes African art and the skyscraper where the brothers grew up. Its title? “Glances on the Horizon.” Yet, in these naive eyes, locked in a rhizomic matrix, there is the disturbing sensation of being observed, scrutinized, or perhaps imprisoned. This is Cobweb-day.
During this period, the band spent its entire life touring with the British post-punk trio Headcleaner and the furious Lyon-based Condense. Their correspondence, followed by a meeting in 1994 with Guy Picciotto, singer-guitarist in Fugazi, led to a series of concerts with the Washington, DC quartet, around the time of the album’s release in the spring of 1995. Quentin Rollet gradually joined the band, first on stage and then on the records. The concerts of this era often ended with long improvisations featuring saxophone, sitar, bass, and drums.
Prohibition had emerged from the shadows, but chose to continue evolving underground, with the Laureau brothers creating their label Prohibited Records. Cobweb-day serves as the first reference. Thirty years ago, then.
The album was recorded at Ark Studios near Paris in January 1995, along with eight other previously unreleased tracks.
This new mix was created at Black Box Studios by Peter Deimel and Nicolas from 24-track analog tapes in August 1998, shortly before the release of 14 Ups & Downs, Prohibition’s fifth and final album, and their US tour. All tracks were remastered by Fabrice and Nicolas Laureau in March/April 2025.
LP & Digital album
1. Tied To A Point 3 :13
2. Smooth Out 2 :22
3. Process 3 :51
4. Cobweb 4 :22
5. Target Is Mine 5:00
6. Glaring 4:52
7. Respect Always Contents 4:54
8. Under Quiet Disguise 5:20
9. The Ambiguous Attitude 5:13
10. Boutique 3:58
Bonus tracks only with the LP or digital on our bandcamp.
11. 3 Letters Gone 5:55
12. Slide Over 6:10
13. Interlude 0:40
14. Squares 3:37
15. Pain 5:21
16. After 2:47
17. Lacks Of Words / Lack’s Back 7:38
Credits
Recorded at Ark Studios by Grégoire Galian, January 1995.
Mixed at Black Box Studios by Peter Deimel and Nicolas Laureau, August 1998.
Mastered by Fabrice and Nicolas Laureau, 2025.
Artwork by Fabrice Laureau.
Photos: Nik Korrat Kern and Mathias Fennetaux
Fabrice Laureau: bass, tablas
Nicolas Laureau: guitar, sitar, vocals
Ludovic Morillon: drums
Quentin Rollet: saxophone
Bio
Nicolas and Fabrice Laureau grew up in between the former USSR, Germany, USA, and France – a fact which influenced their diverse passion for music. Prohibition formed after the two brothers met Ludovic Morillon in 1989 while attending the same French University. The band immediately became a priority over the University, and in it’s development, saxophonist Quentin Rollet was progressively integrated into the group from 1992.
Soon after, the French label Distorsion gave the band their first two releases, in 1993 and 94. In 1994, the band decided to fully embrace the D.I.Y. way of life, and Prohibited Records was conceived to release their third album, “Cobweb-day”.
Three years later, Rollet also created his own Avant-Garde Jazz label, Rectangle, with French guitarist Noël Akchoté. The cultural dynamism of Paris has been the source of Prohibition’s work. Their fourth album, “Towncrier”, and the 5 song CD, “#5 FollowtheTowncrier”, are thematically based around perceptions of Paris. The group’s last album, “14 Ups and Downs” was recorded in April ’98, with Peter Deimel at Black Box Studio (France), and released during the end of ’98 all over Europe and in the US. Four films/videos (ranging from narrative to experimental) were shot for this album by the French film collective Formicoleo.
In September/October 1998 the band toured the US playing shows with Blonde Redhead, The Black Heart Procession and David Grubbs (Gastr Del Sol,…). After their European tour of 1999, the band decided to take a break to work on other musical projects, and to allow Nicolas and Fabrice to focus on running the label.
Their music has been described as newrock based on the mixing of musical fields and Parisian cultural interplay.
Prohibition has played more than 400 shows (from clubs to festivals) all over Europe and the U.S. and has shared stages with Fugazi, Blonde Redhead, David Grubbs, The Ex, Dominique A, U.S. Maple, Noir Desir, To Rococo Rot, Tarwater, Couch, Victims Family, Les Thugs, Condense and many others (including most of the other Prohibited Records bands).
Picture Prohibition 2015 by Vincent Arbelet.
Contact : prohibitionparisband@gmail.com
