Steve Spon Solo projects

Spon’s input on the Diamond Seeds Label

DOOMSDAY DOT COM....NEW ALBUM BY NOSTRAMUS, coming to a planet near you soon!DOOMSDAY DOT COM….NOSTRAMUS
Is this the end of drum and bass as we know it?

A sound concept tapestry with a strong musical current, including samples which expose media hysteria amongst both dark and light themes. Nostramus comments on the phenomena that shape our early 21st century; times where fear is founded for some, and a plaything for others. More info.

Tracks – 12
Label – Diamond Seed Productions
Year – 2011
CD Album Price – £9.99 inc shipping* BUY NOW
Digital Download – I Tunes | CD Baby
Sample clips on Soundcloud


Earthlights 2010 Remastered. Click to buy CDEARTHLIGHTS REMASTERED…..NOSTRAMUS

Described as ’21st century pagan drum and bass’, the ‘Earthlights’ album by Spon’s alter ego Nosramus was released in 1997 by Recordings of Substance in the UK and Shadow Records in the US to critical acclaim. Now remastered in 2010. More info.

Tracks – 10
Label – Diamond Seed Productions
Year – 2010
Price – £9.99 inc shipping* Buy CD
Digital Download – I Tunes, E Music, Amazon
Sample sound clips here


DARK AMBIENCE PROJECT…..THE HIDDEN CORE

A feast of sound-scarped nightmare visions and eclectic journeys. Culled from the darker psychotropic-fueled imagination of The Big Eye, Bud Brothers and Nostramus’s  Steve Spon. More info..

Tracks – 13
Label – Diamond Seed Productions
Year – 2011
Price – £10.00 inc shipping* Buy CD
Digital Download – Available soon
Sample sound clips – Available soon


STEVE SPON PRODUCTIONS : ELLA JO’S ALBUMS


LIMITS OF MILKWEED…..ELLA JO

Ella Jo provides melodic nutrition for a runway to the stars.
This album’s sound-scape provides a rich feast good enough for a Space Shuttle journey. In the Universal Soup of Life, it makes a seriously good sound track. More info..

Tracks – 10
Label – Diamond Seed Productions
Year – 2008
Price – £9.99 inc shipping* Buy CD
Digital Download – I Tunes, Amazon, CD Baby
Sample sound clips here


ALTER EGO…..ELLA JO

Following the Soul’s whisper, Ella Jo gives clues in this album as she reflects on a hard world, but refuses to be beaten. Here there are tuneful explorations of serious issues, interwoven with the joyous stuff of dreams. More info..

Tracks – 10
Label – Diamond Seed Productions
Year – 2008
Price – £9.99 inc shipping* >Buy CD
Digital Download – I Tunes, Amazon, CD Baby,
Sample sound clips here


ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING…..ELLA JO

This album is like a porthole where beauty is borne of trouble, and passing through it is a cleansing, uplifting experience. Work well crafted will always channel human experience into sweet depths, for those brave enough to share it. More info..

Tracks – 10
Label – Diamond Seed Productions
Year – 2010
Price – £9.99 inc shipping* Buy CD
Digital Download – Available soon
Sample sound clips – Available soon


* January 2011, Subject to slight fluctuations owing to currency conversion rates. CD’s available from Kunaki USA priced at $9.80 plus $4.20 shipping, total price $14.00 (UK = £10.00, Euro 10.80) Delivery to UK and Europe around 8 to 14 days. Payment via PayPal and most major cards.


Steve Spon’s solo projects…a brief biog

Since the demise of UK Decay and then IN Excelsis back in 1985,  Spon has continued producing music for himself and others.

As the resident engineer/producer at ’33’ Recording Studios he worked for a decade on a wide variety of different genre’s. He helped produce many post-punk bands in the eighties and nineties, including Click Click, Karma Sutra, Passchendale, Party Girls, IrritantCrowe Jayne amongst others. He also produced numerous commercial recordings for the ’33 Jazz’ label, as well as co-producing many underground dance tracks for the emerging DJ culture.

Bass lines and drops that Spon helped produce rocked many a dance-floor at that time.The surge in technology in the art of music production during the late eighties saw Spon honing his music production skills. In 1990 he teamed up with ex Click Clicker’s Derek ‘E’ Smith and Graham Stronach to form a new band called ‘The Big Eye”. Described by the band at the time as “Techno–with-guitars”, TBE played a handful of live shows, produced a couple of EP’s and an Album, (both on vinyl and CD) over three years for the London based Hydrogen Dukebox label. Most of these are now out of print, and like a lot of Spon’s past material, are very rare to track down.

Spon latched early onto Jungle – the emerging Drum and Bass genre of music. During the early nineties he crafted a collection of tracks of his own. His material aimed to create a more thoughtful and ‘intelligent’ spin to counter the frantic naivety of the early hardcore rave sound. During this period the classic ‘vocal-lyrical’ approach had taken a back-seat to the repetitive and minimalist sound scape. This suited Spon’s eclectic and original use of samples to create mood shifts that mold deep, optimistic and relaxing sonic journeys. This was Spon’s first major ‘solo’ project with guest vocalist Prince Malachi, MC13, Caroline Nische and Natasha D, the proposed album was to be called ‘Earthlights’ under Spon’s new artist name; ‘Nostramus’.

This was released in July 1997 by London label, ‘Recordings of Substance’ and licensed to the US ‘Shadow Records’ label. ‘Earthlights’ went onto sell a respectable 6000 copies world-wide and tracks from the album were seen on many a ‘chilled–d & b/electronica’ type compilation album. In 2010 Spon re-engineered and re-mastered ‘Earthlights’ for the Diamond Seeds label (there is a link to further information and sound clips of the album above)

Spon continued producing and re-mixing for others up to the end of the nineties but aside from a limited edition Exodus Festival album, ‘Bomb Babylon‘ (a DIY darker, pertinent and bombastic affair – that, in Spon’s own words was, “unfinished”), there was no further Nostramus release until the 2003 ‘Hero of Bamboostick’ EP on Jolt Records.

In September 2011, Nostramus released  ‘Doomsday Dot Com’ and unlike in the case of the the ‘Earthights’ album, Spon has introduced his guitar sound on some of the tracks. Another project has involved re-mastering some of Spon’s more esoteric and subliminal work from the nineties. He has produced an album called ‘Dark Ambience’ by ‘The Hidden Core’ (or THC for short!), containing largely ambient and beat-less material, but with brooding, sometimes menacing sound collages. You wont find much guitar in this mix, but UK Decay and IN Excelsis listeners may be familiar with some of the darker sonic dream sequences, a style used in the UK Decay’s ‘Werewolf‘ and ‘Unexpected Guest’ introductions for example. This is all available on the Diamond Seeds Label.

Spon’s production work with Ella Jo

Early in 2004, a singer songwriter Ella Jo knocked on Spon’s door. She had been looking for him since the ’33’ studio shut down in 1998. EJ promptly readied her old battered guitar and promptly sang him a handful of songs that she had wanted to record for a good number of years. She also explained that she had spent several years backpacking to far slung places across the world on her own.

This obviously impressed Spon enough embark on a musical relationship that would last until the present day. The end result was a collection of three classic albums incorporating many differing styles ranging from Pop, Neo Folk, Acupela, Avant Garde, Gothic, Drum and Bass and Electronica. Arguably the Ella Jo sound is perhaps not what one would expect from the guitarist of UK Decay at first listen but it shows off Spon’s deftly touch on music production.

Ella Jo’s music is eclectic and shows an inner wisdom that only someone with her wide travelling and life experience can reflect. It journeys through genre’s and styles with utter contempt for the narrow marketing niche, instead celebrating the oratorical rhythms and cadences of modern everyday life from a female perspective.

Although largely musically driven by Ella Jo, Spon has contributed to all three of Ella Jo’s albums with keyboards, bass, drums and other orchestrations as well as producing the overall sound. On the third album ‘Attitude is Everything’ he plays guitar on a couple of tracks with UK Decay bass-man Ed Branch also contributing.

We could sum up Ella Jo’s music as pure, captivating, elevating and an enigma to the preconception and cliché’s of a male dominated business and listener ship. She avoids overplaying that card here, transcending the open minded listener, male or female, to a greater purpose; a true artist.

More details on Ella Jo’s three albums here.

LINKS

Discog: | Steve Spon at discog | The Big Eye at discog | Nostramus at discog |
Steve Spon – Nostramus Interview: | “Where the worlds of drum ‘n’ bass and post-punk and goth collide, stands a man like Spon” |
Nostramus at WordPress: | Nostramus World |
Nostramus at Myspace: | Nostramus at Myspace |
Nostramus at Diamond Seeds: | Nostramus at Diamond Seeds |
Nostramus old site: | Nostramus old site |
Nostramus at Facebook: | Nostramus Facebook page |
Ella Jo Interview: | Diamond Seeds talks with Ella Jo about her groundbreaking trilogy of Album’s |
Ella Jo at Diamond Seeds: | Ella Jo’s home page at DS |
Diamond Seeds Productions: | Diamond Seeds home |

Update – the news from Diamond Seeds this Autumn

Well it’s been a few months since we had the chance to update this site – it’s been a busy old time! The summer is nearly over and we are settling down to web stuff yet again.

The hard work has been paying off and there is now another book available on Diamond Seeds Publications, the second issue of Tarot Decoded – for the High Priestess Tarot Card. The research for this book by Ella Jo Street resulted in giving more than a simple explanation for the card; it is probably best described as a pagan source book. Reading back the proof copy has been a pleasure – this book really is indispensable for understanding the meaning behind the card and gives a complete mythology into the background behind magic with a factual look at witchcraft, designed to educate and widen the horizon of those with an interest, and enrich a reading for anyone training in the art of Tarot Reading!

Next up we have not one but two CD albums now available from the genius fingertips of sound-master Steve Spon. He tells me that he will be writing a new album with his band UK Decay this year, so we are lucky he has made time to re-mastered and release two eclectic albums first conceived in the 1990’s. It seemed touch and go to the outsider who may have wondered at leaving one CD in the freezer for a week, but when it was time to dust it down and record it onto modern equipment the icicles dripped dry and the music was re-born!

First album to hit the light of day was the Nostramus Earthlights album. A long process of digging out the masters and re-booting them for today’s technology began in December 2009, but this summer all was completed and the world was blessed with some magnificent intelligent Drum and Bass – reborn. There are classical elements in this album which makes no apology for having a life force all of its own. As with all of Nostramus’ material it enriches the everyday experience of music into a festival of warped realities and harmonic vapour trails. Listening to it I firmly believe that Steve Spon writes sound tracks to sci fi movie’s that haven’t been thought of yet! The tunes and the sound-scapes create inspiration for anyone with a vision for art or film; in short, he is way ahead of his time.

And it’s not like the stuff I’m hearing is complicated. It goes from pretty moments to dark tragic times – all eventualities may be present, yet it is timeless and simple without being repetitive. Spon’s other new album, under the name THC, is called Dark Ambience, and I swear it actually breathes. For my taste, the music really has reached another level with this album – and I think the genius was born of pain and passion which was sieved and refined into the most delicious mix of tunes and rich instrument sounds – as if it were a magic music box found in Merlin’s cave – reflecting the future into the present whilst mixing up sound elements from the past; there’s something reassuringly recognizable – only to disappear into weirdness that is nearly hypnotic. My copy of this CD is already nearly worn out!!!

The summer was topped off by a couple of gigs that went well – UK Decay played again at Blackpool’s Rebellion festival, this time in the picturesque Winter Gardens, and Ella Jo played an enjoyable hour at Luton Fringe Festival giving her songs an acoustic airing to an appreciative crowd.  She said, ‘I got to the bottom of what caused my legs to shake on stage – it stopped when I stopped wearing heels, and I do so love my boots, but in the end, wearing sandals cured the problem!’

What’s New At Diamond Seeds!

What’s New At Diamond Seeds This Easter

This Easter we have some new products on Diamond Seeds to delight the public. Ella Jo has made available some new books for those interested in the Tarot with two very different books on this subject. Both books are highly readable and informative, whether you are a serious student or just have a passing interest.

The first book to be produced is called ‘The Magician which is an in-depth study of this Tarot Card. It is actually the first book to be released from a whole series called ‘Tarot Decoded’ which Ella Jo says will eventually reveal all the meanings and mythologies behind each Tarot Card. We look forward to making more editions available from this on-going series.

We also have the pleasure of making another of her books available, called Journey of a Tarot Reader’. Ella Jo writes the story of her adventures in this entertaining paperback. The tale unfolds as she has a taste of beach life then takes a trip through Turkey seeking the origins of Tarot. If you are looking for some light reading for the beach this book makes a great companion. And for those who are fascinated with the subject of Tarot, she has included her research notes at the end of the book.

Finally (!) the irrepressible Ella Jo has produced yet another lyric book. Entitled ‘Attitude is Everything’. This book of lyrical poetry accompanies the album of the same name, (to be released April 2010). As with her other lyric books, there is a chapter giving information about the stories behind the songs, along with all of the poetry that makes up the lyrics on her third album.

All of the above books are new and available now on Diamond Seeds.

And Coming Soon…..

Music….
In the near future Diamond Seeds will be releasing the next Nostramus album called ‘Earthlights II’, and Ella Jo’s third album, ‘Attitude is Everything’.

Books…..
We are looking forward to hosting the next edition from Ella Jo’s series, ‘Tarot Decoded’, which will be a whole book about the High Priestess Tarot Card! And we hope to make a fantastic book available by Hugh Byrne called ‘Visions’ – a quality book by this enigmatic photographic artist.

Check back in a few weeks for reviews and availability!
AND If you want to sell your books or music through us, just send an e mail to Diamondseeds33@googlemail.com

Visit us on diamondseeds.co.uk

Nostramus back-catalouge available soon on Diamond Seeds

The Nostramus back-catalouge, will shortly be available on Diamond Seeds via online fulfillment service.Earthlights UK version
This will include a re-tweaked and mastered version of the 1997 release of ‘Earthlights’.
Also included will be the ‘Bomb Babylon’ album material, which came out to mark the artist performance at the legendary ‘Free The Spirit Festival’, hosted by the ‘Exodus Sound System’ in 1999 at the Long Meadow farm, Charlton, north Luton. This legendary live performance will become available on the new service.

The ‘Bomb Babylon’ album was scheduled as a follow-up to ‘Earthlights’ and there were only 50 copies ever made, the process was beset with problems. Since then, Nostramus has moved onto other projects including the 2003 ‘Hero Of Bamboo Stick’ EP and many remixes that have seen the light of day on various releases. Nostramus is now consolidating this ‘lost’ material into format for fresh release utilising the latest ‘web 2′ fulfillment technology.

Nostramus director Steve Spon, shall also be presenting the earlier ‘Dark-Ambient’ ‘THC’ (The Hidden Corporation) archives on the new Diamond Seeds website in the near future.