Today I listened to the new DJ Kicks, one of the best and long running DJ mix series. This time by Moodymann.
Lot’s of records I never heard and an excellent soundtracks for a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Not the best DJ kicks for me but a very good one indeed. And for the Moodymann fans, loads of edits by the mann.
It’s on Spotify as well, so check it out.
A few weeks back I suffered an encephalitis due to a virus that got stuck in my brain. Now I am getting back from that which isn’t all that easy. Progress is slow , and not always a straight line up.
In order to get my health back I need to do some exercising , no running so I stick to walking for now. One of the advantages is I get to take my camera with me and snap some pictures. A few I have uploaded and added.
This time about the label Planet core productions and it’s sub labels. Which were many, they released a lot of records. Some absolute rubbish, others classics to this day.
It was based in Frankfurt and run by Marc Acardipane. He also made a lot of the tracks, as did Miro. The label started in the early 90’s and ran up until 2000/2001 I think.
It was mostly known as a hardcore label by many. But they mixed all sorts of styles , trance and techno influences were very common. My first purchase and one of the best releases i think was
PCP 935 Future. I bought it sealed and didn’t open it straight away when I got home. At first I didn’t like it at all, to be honest. But after a few listening sessions it quickly became one of most played records, although at that time I didn’t own that many.
The label had other sublabels, Dance Ecstasy 2001, Coldrush , Super Special Corp, Kotzaak to name a few of the most well known. At first they were sold in just a few record stores and a lot of people found the tracks a bit to forward thinking, a few dance floor hits like , later when slaves to the rave became a monster hit in the hardcore/gabber world, people started looking at the label. Making it harder for me to be on time and being able to buy the latest. Therefore I missed a few. Thank god for Discogs.
A few very cool releases are The Mover The Final Sickness, Reign Hall , Rave creator a new mind part I & II, Miro Purple moon and many more. Pretty much all of the releases on Cold rush records are excellent. Check it out if you get the change. Even if you are not really into the harder styles. It’s worth it.
Ipman’s Depatterning was waiting in the playlist for some time. Finally got round to it and I really liked it. Old school sounds in unusual ways and sequences.
Rave sounds, jungle stuff , nice edits and cool grooves. A couple of party tracks and some experimental stuff. It’s a compact album which maybe could use 2 more tracks.
All in all just my kind of music. Favourite tracks : Gravity Dub and IPA. But all the tracks are quality. Must listen.
Last year I started a small Eurorack system. And still keeping it small. I don’t own any Make Noise modules yet but a few I a very interested in. Nice interview with the founder.
A new month and new additions to the portfolio. The markets have taken a dive in recent months so there should be some bargains out there.
The main concern is the oil price , which is getting lower and everyone is lowering the price target for this year.
The world has a surplus now but once the dust settles prices will recover and Shell will be well positioned.
The decline in the international markets will continue for some time I think, for the long term portfolio this is not bad at all, it leaves room for buying some nice dividend stocks.
For the additions this month I looked towards Germany and in the Netherlands. Starting off here, I bought one share of Unibail Rodamco. It’s a real estate company which owns a lot of real commercial real estate, mainly shopping. Shopping is dying , everybody seems to think these days. I am old school and I like a physical shop, you see the products try them and get service.
I see a lot of people shopping for speciality items, food, cloths etc. It’s about the experience, the run of the mill discounter will not cut it but the quality shops certainly will.
And in this department they have a nice segment of high end commercial property. The dividend has just been raised which is good and sits around 4%. The Q4 results were solid and I think they will continue to be.
In Germany I added 1 new company’s to the portfolio. It’s the insurer Munich Re , a very solid company with an ever growing dividend. It might be a bit expensive but even at the current price it will give out a 4,7% dividend. Which is very good, and it’s increasing.
One for the list 🙂 , which is getting longer and longer.
Running Wild: 20 Years of the Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon from Lowe Alpine on Vimeo.
I am going to record the dividends per month from now on. It makes it easier for me and gives a nice overview of the monthly payments.
January 2016 is done again and the dividends for this month are :
In Euro without the tax :
26-01-2016 WHOLE FOODS MARKET IN) EUR 1,22
25-01-2016 GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY EUR 2,00
15-01-2016 W.P. CAREY INC. REIT EUR 8,69
Total 11.91
It’s a new year which means I can pay off another 15% on the base sum of my mortgage. And that will save me around 100 Euro in interest payments each month. For the duration of the mortgage.
Most people still think I am crazy, because I am missing out on my tax deduction on the interest payment. Well I still feel differently about this. Since I am paying this interest in the first place and I also pay tax on my savings. Which yields a whopping 0,75% in interest at the moment. And I am paying around 5% on the mortgage.
for me it’s an easy way to save money each month without having to do anything , and I need to pay back the loan anyway, so why not now. It might not make for a spectacular story at a party but saving 5% is exciting enough for me. More people should do it in my opinion. Debt is debt , no matter what you have as collateral. Your net value might include the value of your house , but you have to live somewhere. So having a mortgage free house will help you a long way too financial independence. Just do the maths.
In the 90’s I discovered Funkstörung , the first track was a remix for Wu tang clan, which I thought was amazing. Turns out they made a whole lot of excellent remixes.
One of my all time favourite tracks being A Guy Called Gerald – Humanity (Funkstörung Remiks).
It was Funkstörung and acts like Squarepusher and Aphex Twin who got me into experimental electronic music. Then Plaid, Boards of Canada and Autechre followed. And many more,
I was happy to hear Funkstörung made another album. On Monkeytown records this time.
I might not be as forward thinking as it once was, and it’s a bit more laidback to my ears. But it’s a very nice album. Lot’s of subtle background sounds but less dense then before. Loads of room between the sounds which is always nice. Favourite tracks are Drown in Time, Killers and All the things. Solid release and hopefully they will not wait another 10 years for another album.