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For those not in the know, the Pulp Fusion series has been the groove-head’s best friend since the mid-1990’s.  This clas­sic com­pi­la­tion series made a name for itself with fans by col­lect­ing the best deep cat­a­log funk, jazz and soul grooves (and cross­breeds of all of the above) for afi­ciona­dos, pre­sent­ing them in nicely curated sets that offer a musi­cal head-trip of the purest variety.

Now that Harmless Records has reached its 15-year anniver­sary, they have com­mem­o­rated the event with a new double-disc install­ment of Pulp Fusion.  Luckily for fans, it con­tin­ues to deliver the sophis­ti­cated jazz/funk/soul goods in its cus­tom­ary style.

On the first disc, high­lights include Reuben Wilson’s instru­men­tal take on “Inner City Blues,” which fore­goes the omi­nous lope of the orig­i­nal for a tight, jazz-funk groove dri­ven by fluid organ solos, and Don Ellis’s re-rerecording of his theme from The French Connection, which reworks it into a fierce large-ensemble work­out with Latin-rhythmic under­pin­nings.  On the vocal tip, The Last Poets’ “It’s A Trip” offers a proto-rap trea­tise on ghetto ills whose taut poly-rhythms match the jit­tery ten­sion of its lyri­cal sentiments.

Things don’t slacken any on the sec­ond disc, which main­tains the consciousness-expanding brew of densely rhyth­mic grooves and socially con­scious sen­ti­ments.  Killers on this half include “Life On Mars,” a mel­low yet per­co­lat­ing shot of jazz-funk from Dexter Wansel that glides for­ward on silky key­board embell­ish­ments, and “Do It,” a long-unreleased gem from the stu­dio project Los Africanos that blends African and Latin rhythms to daz­zling effect.  Other high­lights include Windy City Orchestra’s “Windy City Theme,” which off­sets an ethe­real orches­tral melody with a churn­ing funk groove, and Lonnie Smith’s “Afrodesia,” a nine-minute epic that ebbs and flows to cre­ate a thor­oughly hyp­notic mood.

If the above track descrip­tions aren’t tan­ta­liz­ing enough, there is plenty more where those high­lights came from in this set.  The Politicians, the house band for Holland-Dozier-Holland’s post-Motown labels Hot Wax and Invictus, drops a psych-tinged funk bomb with their instru­men­tal “The World We Live In” and Patrice Rushen serves up an early exam­ple of her ethe­real, melod­i­cally sweet approach to jazz-funk with “Let Your Heart Be Free.”  Elsewhere, the com­pil­ers show their smart by includ­ing under­ground cult faves like Yellow Sunshine’s self-titled theme tune and offer­ing two ver­sions of “The Bottle,” one on each disc (the clas­sic Gil Scott-Heron orig­i­nal appears on the first and the Latin-ized instru­men­tal cover by Joe Bataan is on the second).

In short, there is a deep-dish dou­ble serv­ing of groove to be explored here and the selec­tions  are var­ied and com­plex enough to reward repeated lis­tens.  The pack­age is com­pleted by infor­ma­tive liner notes by Pulp Fusion reg­u­lar Dean Rudland and com­pre­hen­sive track list­ings that include images of the orig­i­nal albums and sin­gles.  This 15th Anniversary Edition is a grand cel­e­bra­tion of what this com­pi­la­tion series rep­re­sents and it makes Your Humble Reviewer hope the series will con­tinue for many years to come.  If you’re a fan of funk’s art­sier side or appre­ci­ate the musi­cally ambi­tious jazz/soul/funk blend­ings inher­ent in a clas­sic blax­ploita­tion sound­track, you will find plenty to enjoy on this set.