I have several rules in my AV sets when I play out: no breaking videos, no endless graffii, no bad cgi dancing people on a loop and no skateboarding videos. I’ll make an exception for this one…

[youtube width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYJtqzwF8wg[/youtube]

One of the best Rap tracks released in years, DJ Format with Edan – ‘Spaceship Earth’, this is taken from Format’s new album ‘Statement of Intent’ which was released on Monday on Project Blue Book.

It features collaborations with Mr Lif, Phill Most Chill, Sureshot La Rock, The Nostalgia 77 Quintet, and The Simonsound. He’s touring the album with The Simonsound beginning in his home town of Brighton this Friday at the Concorde II – more dates on his blog.

[youtube width=”640″ height=”480″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-emKstoheQ0[/youtube]

In a weird bout of synchronicity, King Cannibal posted, “Dear music industry. I bet It’s kinda embarrassing that Sigue Sigue Sputnik guessed it right.” on Twitter, late on Friday night. Being a SSS fan, I replied, asking him to elaborate, “the whole bit about the music not being important. Global branding, advert space on albums. Looking like Gaga”, he said. Mark Emsley from ireallylovemusic chimed in with a timely reminder of their, “history will prove us right”, catchphrase which sometimes adorned their adverts.

I have to admit, he’s got a point, and then tonight, Thrift Shopxl posts an obscure B-side of theirs on Facebook and this: “Check out what Degville says in this Japanese interview from 1986 about the brand and how it’s about the stuff around the music – it’s like a blueprint for today’s label deals:” and the video above. Like everyone else at the time, I thought they were just having a laugh, and they probably were, just playing the pop game and seeing what would happen. But what Degville’s saying, (and he was only towing Tony James‘ line), is eerily prescient and looking at the fashion sense of a lot of K Pop bands you wonder if they were influenced by Sputnik along the way, although this is probably more to do with SSS’s wholesale theft of many Japanese manga elements for their look in the first place.

[youtube width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfYw9nxQdB8&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

I’ve been sitting on this for a few weeks now, completely nuts video to ‘Night & Day’, the first release from Pepe Deluxé‘s new album ‘Queen of the Wave’. The album comes out on Jan 30th via Catskills Records and they will be having a release party at the London aquarium on Jan 23rd with films, an album playback and your truly spinning some sea-themed tunes. The band’s website has a nice 8 page download about the making and history behind the record too.