“Every year or so, Houston produces an album that deserves to be remembered as a historical document as much as a piece of music… in 2012 Free Radicals’ The Freedom Fence can’t help but take that honor. Topical in more ways than one, it addresses one of the 21st century’s flashpoint issues — borders — in a multitude of languages and genres: Salsa, dub, klezmer, Afrobeat, jazz, blues, rock and rap, among others. It may span the globe, but Freedom Fence doesn’t shut out local inner-city gentrification (“Third Ward Not for Sale”) and the hospital that has treated so many uninsured local musicians (“Ben Taub Blues”).” — Houston Press

“This album is a musical melting pot that you will want to play on repeat.”
– Free Press Houston

2012

Free Press Houston April 2010
Few if any bands in Houston are as diverse and unique as Free Radicals. Their sound can be described as a jazzy collage of reggae, Latin, funk, punk, soul, hip hop, and maybe even a little bit of Jewish klezmer too but attempting to describe this group’s sound is probably futile — you need to listen to them for yourself. No two people will get the same experience from a Free Radicals show. Some people will be enticed to dance with the Latin grooves, some will bob their heads to the funky percussion, some will listen closely for the next jazzy horn solo. Since almost the mid 90’s multicultural diversity is that they have thrived in exploring, winning the Houston Press best Jazz award seven times. They Rock Avant Garden every Wednesday.

Musical reaction to Houston’s Free Radicals
By GREG OKUHARA
(College Station, TX) Eagle Staff Writer
Since forming in 1996, Free Radicals has been in a constant state of evolution.
Band members have come, gone, then come back. The band’s songs range from jazz to ska to reggae and drum ‘n’ bass; with some tunes that are a fusion of all of the above.
Drummer Nick Cooper said the idea is to keep the music fresh both for the band and its listeners. And for a band that’s active both in musical and political arenas, it’s important for Free Radicals to have flexibility when approaching its shows.
“We’re always coming at it from different angles,” he said. “When somebody joins the band, they are not substituting for somebody who used to be in the band. We don’t even play our old material. At all. We’re always writing new material. So if you join the band, you’re playing parts that you came up with or somebody wrote for you while you are in the band. The material keeps changing.
“The idea is that people are going to come and go, but the project will continue to work. For the people who may have been a full-time member of the band at one time, they can still come back and be a part of it. In any case, the project can continue going and developing.”
Just as important to the band as its music is getting involved with various social causes.
During the past few years, Free Radicals has taken part in Halliburton protests, immigrant rights marches and a march supporting Houston janitors. In 1999, the band played for 24 hours without stopping to raise money for Kid Care, a children’s health program.
Cooper said Free Radicals didn’t form in order to take on support specific political or social causes. The members’ first goal was to make fusion music, drawing on influences ranging from African, Indian, jazz and ska backgrounds.
“Over time, we’ve played so many protests and benefit concerts for so many kinds of causes that the guys in the band have all kind of come together around that,” Cooper said. “So when there’s an immigrant rights march or there’s a anti-war march, people know in community and the people in the band start thinking, ‘What can we get together for this?'”
But that doesn’t mean the music is overtly political in nature. In fact, Free Radicals music is mainly instrumental. Cooper said unless the members make some sort of statement between songs during a concert, fans probably wouldn’t know about the band’s views or opinions.
“We’re not necessarily there to attack individuals,” he said. “We’re working musicians who are trying to make money playing music, but at the same time, we’re going to constantly give our services for free to all kinds of social causes. Some of the guys in the band before Sept. 11 were kind of apolitical. Then they decided they’re anti-war and other things like that. So playing in the band has come to mean that we share some things musically and politically.”
Not to be lost in the shuffle is Free Radicals’ music.
The band currently is recording its fourth studio album. Unlike the massive collaboration projects for previous albums, Cooper said this time there’s a “very solid line-up” of two saxophones, a guitar, bass, drums and percussion.
“We’ve been playing with the same group of guys more or less for the past two, two and a half years. We’ve been working on a set of material based around a particular lineup.”
Cooper said working and living in a diverse city like Houston has opened many doors for the band to include various international elements to its music.
And with an open-door policy regarding the musicians who can contribute to Free Radicals, it’s easy to find people who bring something new to the table.
Cooper said Free Radicals have songs influenced by Indonesian, Brazilian, Latin American and Jewish sounds. Mix in some jazz, funk, ska, dub and reggae, and that’ll give people a sampling of Free Radicals music.
“There are threads connecting it all together,” Cooper said. “We’re not some band trying to do things in this pure form. We’re using them to express our ideas. And whether it’s a Latin American tune or a Jewish tune, [saxophonist Pete Sullivano] is going to sound like Pete. And when we play with African or Indian musicians, these are people who were brought up with that music. These aren’t people who just picked it up a few years ago.”
• Greg Okuhara’s e-mail address is greg.okuhara@theeagle.com.

JazzHouston.com
It’s far too easy to dismiss Free Radicals. After all, who are these guys—-just a buncha left-wing hippies with a tape recorder, right?
Not anymore.
Take a moment to listen to all three Free Radicals CD’s chronologically…..well OK, take several moments, because these releases are packed to the gills with music. Each pushes the limit of time available to the breaking point, so all three will take up 3.8 hours of your life. By doing so, however, you will hear a tremendous growth in musicality. These guys are just plain getting better every day. With their newest CD, Aerial Bombardment, drummer Nick Cooper and his cronies eschewed traditional songwriting for more improvisational development, and yet it represents their most cohesive effort yet…. — Kelly Dean

WMUC FM
32 songs, 50 musicians. This shouldn’t work but it does amazingly well. This is a fine mix of little bits of various genres. A majority is instrumentals with a nice little groove set by vibes, or keys or gongs. Reviewed by Max Nova