Congrats @Unifono and @Doug , glad to be on the podium with you guys 
, your beats are amazing ! And thanks everybody for the positive feedbacks!
It was one of my favourites battle since the begining, and you all made crazy stuff!
10 Likes
Big congratulations to the winners, all amazing beats. Standards this time were off the charts and what a variety of flavours too. My guesses were pretty close! Really enjoyed the mystery element of this one 
Huge big ups to @Unifono and @surfacescan for this battle. It was a great one and you guys clearly put a lot of thought and ideas into it. Also big props to @LyingDalai on the voting technicals! Really enjoyed using the submitted samples, could have used more and had loads going over my beat at one point but time forced me limit to things.
I think I must be a fan of @PineappleDave, I seem to vote for you every time mate, haha.
13 Likes
Congrats everyone, awesome beats and ridiculously high standards. ) A great inspiration to keep learning and keep making beats.
Also, thanks to all the organizers and the voters. I donāt have time to share my thoughts on all of these beats now, so I will limit myself to my top three:
nr. 1 @drrumble
This beat had me nodding my head from the beginning. It really had a RAWKUS vibe for me and I was constantly waiting for Mos Def to drop some lines. Also, the way the sample selection blends together is art for me.
nr. 2 @Doug
One word: bass. Also, the variation that happens from approx 0.33 until around 1.03 completely wiped out my normal craving for lyrics flowing over the beats.
nr. 3 @Unifono
This track feels like a journey to me. There is so much happening, yet the harmony is never lost. I really got a jazzmatazz vibe with this one.
11 Likes
itās funny how these things work! I voted for 11 in part cuz it sounded like something weird that I would do. Great job @tinara! Definitely sounds like Hudson Mohawk.
And thx again @looms for consistently liking my weird ideasš
Congrats to those who won! @Unifono, @Doug (my guess was spot on 
), and @drrumble! You all killed it.
Special thanks to @Unifono and @surfacescan for organizing the best battle yet! I hope we keep the blind vote around.
Big ups all around!
7 Likes
after finishing my close listening and comment session on the couch last night, my wife said, ādid you accomplish what you wanted with your little club?ā
yes, okayā¦ we have a little club where we make songs, create mix tapes, and give each other props. GUILTY AS CHARGED!
10 Likes
Dang. I was wrong about most of those. Great job everyone!
6 Likes
yeah, nice surprises all round. blind vote made it better to listen objectively.
pitched down, filter down Q up, MD dynamix push
motherlandwftsamples.zip (757.3 KB)
2 Likes
The making of descriptions I received (in no particular order). For those who didnāt have time to write something up, feel free to add it later here!
@Jedilicious
I canāt exactly remember where I pulled all the samples from, but I used quite a lot of them (even the drums are mostly granularized samples, with the exception of the snare).
@eerieacid
had some issues with my production which caused some ideas to not come to fruition. only had a couple hours with this one due to work and travel and used this battle to try and learn my new 404 mk2 which I havenāt even begun to figure out lol. couldnāt quite get patterns and effects to work in my favor and had some level and mixing issues recording over usbc. ultimately felt itād be more fun to submit something unfinished/unpolished than nothing. started the beat with the slowed down fatoumata segment and really built from there. matched it with some drums pulled from the ginger break. had hopes of processing parts of fatoumataās guitar solo through my modular system as an acid lead but ran out of time. great beats everyone, looking forward to joining future battles!
@waftlord
decided to not go a break beat route for this one.
cut out several one shots and two loops (cymbals and park djembes) that i liked.
I shared a pic in the phase 2 of these so you can maybe tell where each wav is fromā¦ threw them in my Machinedrum UW, made 5 patterns with a few extra kicks and hits and couldnāt choose one, so jammed them out live in an order that felt right in that moment.
@looms
I decided early on when listening to the main sample sources I wanted to use the Hibiscus track for the main chops/melody of the track and hoped to use primarily the vocals from the other two in some way with it.
I made some rough chops and sound selections using Ableton and Serato Sample (trying to get things in key and tempo with each other) then dumped everything on to my 404 mk2.
I looped up the drum break (I would have liked to have done more with the it but ran out of time so itās just a loop), but I liked the groove of it so played around further chopping the Hibiscus bits I took and pitching them around and jamming over the break until I had something I thought sounded OK. Then I chopped, pitched and jammed the vocals from the Fela and Fatoumata tracks. I had loads of the submitted sounds going and could have easily used more but ran out of time and didnāt want to completely swamp the track.
I sequenced on the 404 using different patterns. The final arrangement (if you can call it that!) was very off the cuff one take pattern triggering straight into Live. It took me a while to get a decent take/s on the main sample but the vocal and user submitted sprinkles were pretty quick to add, but I spent a long time jamming them I committed things to patterns like I always do. Probably could have been a better track if I didnāt always do this as I would have had time to try and do other things to it! I might do some little things to it still to see if I can improve it - drum change ups, panning, mixing, mastering etc.
@PineappleDave
After making three totally different ideas using lots of different samples, I wasnāt really sure what to do. But, thanks to @Unifono, I found that 808 kicks count as drum samples, so I hopped onto the first idea and slapped the 808 on there. This gave me the little bit of inspiration that I needed, and after that, I structured the entire track around the Nterini vocals.
With a frame to follow, I filled in the gaps with various elements coming in and out as needed. Since the main groove of the track is a trap-based beat, I wanted to include something more akin to a Dilla beat in part of the song as a contrast to the modern style of beat in the main section. This kind of harkens back to the āWhere we are from AND where we are atā quote that we got at the start.
Samples used included the awesome piano sample from Doug, the percussion from @yabba, the Nterini vocal, and some drums from Letās Start.
@Blasted_pingin
From what i remind, i made the sound during an insomnia, middle of the night, in 2 hours. Since i was not home (and could not wait since we just received the samples to use and i knew i would not have time afterwards), i only had the iPad and gave a try to Koala Sampler app.
I was discovering it so it was kind of dodgy to balance the sounds, find some changes, etc. In the end i was bouncing my head enough to go to sleep and take my chance to send it before i wake up and change my mind
So IIRC i used like a repeat function for the beat in order to have like a roll. I layered some one shots and tried some live recording variations with a slight Gate FX.
I cannot remind which exact samples i used but for sure some solos from Fela and vocal from Fatoumata. For this one i tried getting an harmony between the normal speed and a downpitched one (not timestretched so i had to find a timing that works).
I also added a sample from a fellow elektronaut containing brass in the end. The whole result is very improvised and simple although when i listen the different tracks i feel i would really like to have time and gear to get something more spicy.
I really enjoyed the whole process: although i donāt listen to hip hop and never took part in a battle, it was quite exciting, especially because of the way samples were proposed, different and interesting.
1 Like
@drrumble
Itās made on the DT only as usual.
The main loop is from the Manu Dibango song.
I added vocal chops from Fatoumata Diawara.
And finialy, I took the flute from Kpucski sample submission and the strings are from Rennweg sample.
For the bass, I took a single waveform from the Dibango song and played it chromaticly. The drums are goldbaby samples.
@Doug
My beat was made entirely on my Digitakt and recorded to Audacity. The bass comes from Fatouma Diaware. The horns come from Manu Dibango, as well as from sleepyhead. The vocals come from looms. The tape noises come from watford. And that squeel comes from soundscan. The foundation of the track is from lyingdalai and his Analog 4. The drums are from āYou Can Flyā by the Sons of Champlin.
@rockpapergoat
my submission used:
track 1: drums: addictive drums
track 2: bass: Fatoumata Diawara, sliced, re-sequenced, effects
track 3: kpucski - Godās Revolver, chopped and effected
track 4: unifono - pandoraās box, one slice, lots of reverb
track 5: manu dibango chops, modnetic dubby reverb and delay
track 6: waftlordās tape, used as background ambiance, rhythmic element
track 7: loomsā club sounds, chopped with reverb/delay
@Unifono
I used Koala sampler on the iPad for slicing and editing the samples and created all different loops for the track their. I used all three african samples and a bunch of local samples, trying to fit them all into one song, by pitching them around to get them in key. I used the isolated Bass from Fatoumata Diawara for all parts of the song.
The drums are made off some rawcutz samples, later in the track I added the this is soul break (Paul Nero) from some more intensity.
I transferred the loops to Ableton, arranged them into the whole thing and did some little mixing. There is the smackos tape station effect rack from Legowelt on the master, as well as a Waves LL3 ultra maximizer.
I basically had 8 different sample flips in koala:
1st flip
Manu Dibango
2nd, 3rd, 4th flip
Different sections from Fatoumata Diawara
5th flip (reverse piano part)
Kris de Bruyne layered with sax from Guus Janssen Septet, drums from Fela Kuti, flute from Ennio Morricone
6th flip
Kris de Bruyne layered with sax (I guess it is saxophone) from Guus Janssen Septet, drums from Fela Kuti, voices from General Levy
7th flip
A4 pattern from Lying Dalai
8th flip
Manu Dibango, layered with voices General Levy and Fela Kuti
4 Likes
My bad I forgot about the descriptionā¦
I did a bit a rush job I started and finished on the day of the deadline.
I used all 3 main samples. and from the home pack I used the flute sample and the sample posted up by @drrumble for the filtered background.
All done mastered and effected in Digitakt.
The only other thing I did effect wise was put a limiter on it to maximise the volume once I recorded it from the master out to computer.
Well done to the deserved winners 
6 Likes
Wicked track for a rush job mate, itās my favourite Iāve heard from you so far!
Cheers mate, thereās something about having to meet a deadline that really focuses the mind haha.
i actually made about three or four different 8 bar beats quite quickly on the day, and ended up selecting the one I submitted.
If I had another weeks worth of time I might have wrongly submitted one of the other ones instead.
4 Likes
Congrats guys! great tracks and deserved winners!
It was cool to guess who did what. @Unifono amazing track, really inspiring, and something I wish I made!
I was so sure Yabba did nr 5 (my personal fav), that I couldnāt figure out which one @Doug did. Great job dude! I can now clearly hear your style in this beat, but maybe thats because I now know you did it .
@drrumble: Iāve listened to your beattapes on multiple occasions, and I can recognize your sound from a mile away. Great job again on this one!
I sort of guessed @looms and @PineappleDave right as well, completely messed up @rockpapergoat haha.
Thanks for the votes on my track as well, and some people even guessed I made it even though I tried very hard to sound unlike myself . This battle has taught me to spend more time mastering because all you guysā tracks sounded banging, and mine kinda disappointed me soundwise hearing it back between the others in the playlist. Work to do for me to catch up!
Thanks to @unifono and @surfacescan for organizing this battle! Iāve always liked the idea of having more interesting rules and setups, but I didnāt think someone would be able to actually manage to organize it. You guys did an amazing job!
10 Likes
Congratulations to the winners AND everyone who participated in this battle. I want to thank you all for entertaining both @unifono and I on this wild adventure. I remember that one of my motivations for the last beat battle, I told my wife: I would love to win, just so that I can lead the hosting on the next battle, timed while we visit Kenya/East Africa. The dream came true - I have learned so much about trusting the process, having wild ideas, collaborating, building community and enjoying the fruits of all this labour. Thank you all!
I didnāt get a chance to talk about my beat so I thought I will also drop that in his post:
I made by beat with two friends in mind: one who has passed away and one who is very much alive:
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My friend Illsteez (aka Arkestra) was a bonified Pete Rock fan and had an ability to almost reproduce a PR beat so well that I couldnāt tell who the original creator was! He grew up in Malaysia where he participated in a passionate local hiphop scene. He passed away in 2019 from colon cancer. So this beat was in memory to him.
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My friend Muki Garang is an old friend from Kenya, we met in a Nairobi music studio in a neighbourhood called āKaliforniaā and started making music together. We havenāt collaborated in a long time and so when he gave me his book of poetry recently released, I was struck by one poem about the power of radio (I used to work in Radio). Hereās an excerpt from one of his poems, Family frequencies:
Fiddling with the runner never wore me out. Occasionally I could hear griots humming and chanting in Bambara over Kora strings. Followed by commentary in Wolof or Gods knows which language it was blowing over the sand dunes at the edge of Timbuktuās borders.
Stretching far from the shores of the Atlantic coast, where sunken ships, rusty chains, ghostly souls carried unfinished stories on backs riddled with scars. Igniting my desire to pursue rhythms from this mystical lands
So my beat was made for both of these brothers. I wanted to summon the visuals of tuning into transatlantic and trans-saharan hiphop on an old trusty radio with faltering batteries/signal strength. I made the beat entirely on the trusty Digitakt. I didnāt deviate much from the essence of Hibiscus - didnāt even try to flip anything. Iām afraid my respect for what I consider Manu Dibangoās equivalent of John Coltraneās āLove Supremeā didnāt even permit me from doing anything that creative! So I chose instead to accentuate the mystical parts I love so much, add that boombap drum and lay the foundation for my brother Muki to lace some lyrics (one day!). Stay tuned for that when it comes!
Thanks again!
Bartolomeo (aka surfacescan)
12 Likes
Nice one!
Guess we have to nominate the next host(s) but I first have to get an overview who already hosted a battleā¦
3 Likes
On my side, I was crunched at work when the phase 2 begin and planned holidays coming the days after. I just took 3-4 days to listen to the samples a bit in loop. During my first day off, I fired up Audacity and began to chop the hell of every sample provided. Anything that was worth it was chopped into manageable bit for the Tracker. I had one day to lay the basis of the track before leaving for 4 days. The plan being when I come back, I would only have the time to begin to add the effects, mixing and mastering.
For context, I was listening to a lot of jungle and working on breakbeat chops in the weeks before the challenge. I charged 47 slots of samples on the tracker and one external Kick from a Motown sample pack. I focused a lot on the vocal samples of Fatoumata using 7 of them and trying to harmonize some, creating fake delay by adding them to various tracks at different steps and pitching them up and down. The breakbeat of surfacesan sample was lifted directly and choped, added the kick from Motown and a other snare from one of my sample. That was the base of what I had until I began to mix and match rockpapergoat stabs and Manu dibango stabs here and there for a more pump up feeling. I sprinkled some Jedilicious, Fela Kuti and sleepyhead samples.
At this point I fiddled a lot the bass of Fela Kuti being unable to make it work and used my back of the growling distorded guitar pitched down as a continuous bass from surfacesan samples.
The whole track was clearly more jungle-hip hop with a bpm at 165 
After my four days off, I came back and began to slow down the tempo to around 150 bpm, half-time some of the kick drum and rework for a less energetic initial take. I tried to master the result in Audacity as much as I could and tada
The vibes of the samples was clearly leading to boom bap, slow tracks, chill vibes and I wanted to go in a more energetic, hard, in your face way.
4 Likes
I would offer to host the next battle together with our highly appreciated runners up, but Iād rather like to nominate @PineappleDave and @waftlord to breath new life into the elektronauts hip hop battle series. As far as I know you guys havenāt hosted yet, and I think the battles always benefit from new ideas and settings.
8 Likes
How noble of you! 
1 Like