# The 5 Best Gnawa Tracks of All Time

Moroccan trance music carried north by enslaved West Africans and played through the night at healing ceremonies: a three-string bass lute, iron castanets, and one pattern held until something gives.

- **Origin:** Essaouira and Marrakech, Morocco, 1600
- **Tempo:** 70–120 BPM
- **Also known as:** gnaoua, guinbri music, lila
- **Tracks:** 5
- **Updated:** 2026-08-30
- **Canonical page:** https://waxonia.com/genre/gnawa/

## The list

### 1. [Maalem Mahmoud Guinia](https://waxonia.com/artist/maalem-mahmoud-guinia/) — [Colours of the Night](https://waxonia.com/track/maalem-mahmoud-guinia--colours-of-the-night/)

*2013*

The master of the guinbri recorded in Casablanca, doing exactly what he would do at a lila. No concession to a listening audience, and it is the most hypnotic record in this part of the corpus.

[Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Maalem%20Mahmoud%20Guinia%20Colours%20of%20the%20Night) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Dia5GNigpdA)

### 2. [Maalem Mahmoud Guinia with James Holden and Floating Points](https://waxonia.com/artist/maalem-mahmoud-guinia-with-james-holden-and-floating-points/) — [Marhaba](https://waxonia.com/track/maalem-mahmoud-guinia-with-james-holden-and-floating-points--marhaba/)

*2015*

A week in a hotel outside Marrakech with two British electronic producers who had the sense to mostly get out of the way. The rare fusion where nobody is being borrowed from.

[Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Maalem%20Mahmoud%20Guinia%20with%20James%20Holden%20and%20Floating%20Points%20Marhaba) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=0uJFee3viNg)

### 3. [Maalem Mahmoud Guinia](https://waxonia.com/artist/maalem-mahmoud-guinia/) — [Aicha](https://waxonia.com/track/maalem-mahmoud-guinia--aicha/)

*1998*

Released on cassette, which is how most of this music actually circulated for fifty years before anyone abroad was listening. The unpolished version, and the better one.

[Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Maalem%20Mahmoud%20Guinia%20Aicha) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=7h6kgHFfuuo)

### 4. [Nass El Ghiwane](https://waxonia.com/artist/nass-el-ghiwane/) — [Ya Sidi](https://waxonia.com/track/nass-el-ghiwane--ya-sidi/)

*1974*

Not a gnawa group, and unthinkable without gnawa. Nass El Ghiwane put the guinbri and the ceremony's rhythms into protest songs, and Morocco has not sounded the same since.

[Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Nass%20El%20Ghiwane%20Ya%20Sidi) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ2_sQuAFE4)

### 5. [Nass El Ghiwane](https://waxonia.com/artist/nass-el-ghiwane/) — [Bouderbala](https://waxonia.com/track/nass-el-ghiwane--bouderbala/)

*1976*

Scorsese called them the Rolling Stones of Africa, which undersells the strangeness. Percussion, a banjo, and lyrics old enough that nobody is sure who wrote them.

Also on: [1976](https://waxonia.com/theme/nineteen-seventy-six/).

[Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Nass%20El%20Ghiwane%20Bouderbala) · [Search YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/search?q=Nass%20El%20Ghiwane%20Bouderbala)

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