Radio review: The Cosmic Hour (BBC Radio 1Xtra)

Presented by Jamz Supernova The Cosmic Hour might scare the very bejaysus out of some of the regulars availing of dial-a-pint delivered discreetly from the good people down the Crab and Lobster but whose idea of cosmic is more Rodney Trotter than …

Published: 6 Nov 2020. Updated: 3 years.

Presented by Jamz Supernova The Cosmic Hour might scare the very bejaysus out of some of the regulars availing of dial-a-pint delivered discreetly from the good people down the Crab and Lobster but whose idea of cosmic is more Rodney Trotter than Rahsaan Roland Kirk.

But to be fair anyone over the age of 17-and-three-quarters or to be found snoozing in front of Dave is in the wrong demographic for The Cosmic Hour. So it seems. The mix is however more grown-up than at first blush and pretty pleasant. And after all there is no age bar on listening to a lot of beatz, the last time I checked.

Yet the soundz, injecting a little note of reality, do become a bit like wallpaper after a while on the poppier tracks. But it makes a change from checking out octogenarian DJs on local BBC raving on about Red Allen.

The Cosmic Hour on the 4 November show gets far better from around track 10 with Andrew Ashong and Kaidi Tatham's 'Sankofa Song' blissed out and busy, busy and then the reliably ravey davey strains of Emma-Jean Thackray rustling up tasty granules of 'Speak No Evil/Night Dreamer'.

Jamz mostly lets the music do the talking and is big on mellowness and sheer lounginess, less so on really going deep into the cosmic side of jazz and that did not get much of a look-in on Wednesday's show but is probably not the point at all. Listen

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Track of the day: 'Treaty' performed by Cande y Paulo

Track of the day is the Larry Klein produced Cande y Paulo version of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Treaty’. Peace, a wish piece, that makes perfect sense if only… but how impossibly in this game of hearts. A world discovered and explored beyond anger and …

Published: 6 Nov 2020. Updated: 3 years.

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Track of the day is the Larry Klein produced Cande y Paulo version of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Treaty’. Peace, a wish piece, that makes perfect sense if only… but how impossibly in this game of hearts. A world discovered and explored beyond anger and fatigue in the lyrics all are conveyed whisperingly by singer-bassist Cande Buasso. The humility and regret of 'I'm so sorry for that ghost I made you be' is especially well caught against the ever more certain piano lines of Paulo Carrizo.