Recording
Colours of the Night
Maalem Mahmoud Guinia
- Released
- 2013
- On one list
- Gnawa
- Updated
- 2026-08-30
Analysis
12 sections, the first drop of 7 at 9:00, 13% of the way in.
- Tempo
- 76 BPM
- the pulse reads at half this too — counted the way the genre counts it
- Dynamic range
- 3.2 dB
- compressed hard — very little between the quiet and the loud
- Length
- 70:49
- measured from the YouTube master
The record, end to end
Click the track to jump · ← → move between sections
- 0:00Aintro0
- 14:12Asteadybar 540
- 30:06Bpeakbar 1144
- 32:37Bliftbar 1240
- 35:24Abreakdownbar 1345
- 38:26Csteadybar 1460
- 40:36Dbreakdownbar 1543
- 48:07Epeakbar 1829
- 51:25Dliftbar 1954
- 59:49Abreakdownbar 2273
- 64:01Cliftbar 2433
- 66:24Aoutrobar 2523
Drops at 9:00 (bar 342), 17:52 (bar 679), 28:52 (bar 1097), 37:09 (bar 1412), 46:51 (bar 1780), 54:57 (bar 2088), 63:02 (bar 2395). A drop is a moment, not a stretch — marked on the track above rather than shaded across it.
0:00 · A · intro
opens the record below its own average energy · sung · one of 5 stretches of the same music (A)
- Lasts
- 14:12
- Energy
- 30
- Brightness
- 0
- Density
- 40
- drums
- bass
- vocals
- other
holding a level — the groove, neither rising nor falling · instrumental · one of 5 stretches of the same music (A)
- Lasts
- 15:54
- Energy
- 15
- Brightness
- 100
- Density
- 75
- drums
- bass
- vocals
- other
sits at the top of this record's range · sung · one of 2 stretches of the same music (B)
- Lasts
- 2:31
- Energy
- 100
- Brightness
- 5
- Density
- 10
- drums
- bass
- vocals
- other
a short rise that does not resolve — a fill or a transition, not a build · sung · one of 2 stretches of the same music (B)
- Lasts
- 2:46
- Energy
- 69
- Brightness
- 24
- Density
- 64
- drums
- bass
- vocals
- other
energy falling away mid-record, percussion thinning · instrumental · one of 5 stretches of the same music (A)
- Lasts
- 3:02
- Energy
- 15
- Brightness
- 5
- Density
- 100
- drums
- bass
- vocals
- other
holding a level — the groove, neither rising nor falling · sung · one of 2 stretches of the same music (C)
- Lasts
- 2:10
- Energy
- 65
- Brightness
- 42
- Density
- 7
- drums
- bass
- vocals
- other
energy falling away mid-record, percussion thinning · instrumental · one of 2 stretches of the same music (D)
- Lasts
- 7:31
- Energy
- 13
- Brightness
- 94
- Density
- 75
- drums
- bass
- vocals
- other
sits at the top of this record's range · sung
- Lasts
- 3:18
- Energy
- 95
- Brightness
- 93
- Density
- 0
- drums
- bass
- vocals
- other
a short rise that does not resolve — a fill or a transition, not a build · sung · one of 2 stretches of the same music (D)
- Lasts
- 8:24
- Energy
- 66
- Brightness
- 82
- Density
- 46
- drums
- bass
- vocals
- other
energy falling away mid-record, percussion thinning · instrumental · one of 5 stretches of the same music (A)
- Lasts
- 4:12
- Energy
- 6
- Brightness
- 50
- Density
- 96
- drums
- bass
- vocals
- other
a short rise that does not resolve — a fill or a transition, not a build · sung · one of 2 stretches of the same music (C)
- Lasts
- 2:22
- Energy
- 59
- Brightness
- 13
- Density
- 6
- drums
- bass
- vocals
- other
the closing fall · instrumental · one of 5 stretches of the same music (A)
- Lasts
- 4:25
- Energy
- 0
- Brightness
- 58
- Density
- 78
- drums
- bass
- vocals
- other
Brightness and density are scored against this record's own sections, not against music in general — they say how its parts differ from each other, and nothing about how it compares to anything else.
- drums
- the drum kit, separated from the mix
- bass
- the bass part, separated from the mix
- vocals
- the voice, separated from the mix
- other
- everything else — synths, guitars, keys, strings
Separated into parts by a source-separation model, so each lane is the instrument it names.
- intro
- opens the record below its own average energy
- steady
- holding a level — the groove, neither rising nor falling
- peak
- sits at the top of this record's range
- lift
- a short rise that does not resolve — a fill or a transition, not a build
- breakdown
- energy falling away mid-record, percussion thinning
- outro
- the closing fall
Measured from the YouTube master on . Section labels describe how the energy of the recording moves, not its musical form — a machine can see loudness climb and jump, it cannot hear a chorus arrive. Anything we were not confident enough to state is left out rather than shown with a caveat.
Ranked No. 1 in Gnawa
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.