Best CD by Local Musicians

Free Radicals' Aerial BombardmentThis jazzy, funky, hip-hoppity, experimental and dub-centric Houston collective never stays within the boundaries of a particular genre, and that's only one of the things that make them so special. Their third CD, Aerial Bombardment, is a unique masterwork helmed by percussionist Nick Cooper and featuring 50 different musicians and vocalists, mostly from H-tizzle. Though the album is largely instrumental, blues singer Gloria Edwards pops in, as do rappers Zin and Perseph1 and members of the Blackout Poets Collective. Free Radicals introduce some new forms on this one, including capoeiraangola-meets-dub remixes and beat collages. With its pulsing angst, it plays like a soundtrack to the revolution.