H.P. Riot

Last time I was at my Dad's house my son was digging through the garage and came across a pile of my old records.  Mixed in was a bunch of my brothers and one of them was a record I had never seen before.

Now this fantastic gem needs a little explaining.  It was recorded in Vancouver, B.C. in 1973 and released on Concept Records which was based in Regina Saskatchewan.  Now comes the puzzling part. The band was a funk band from San Francisco.  A 10 piece 'rock and soul' band that took their name from the neighbourhood they grew up in Hunter's Point.  Named after a 'race riot' that took place there in 1966.

On the back cover it says:  Hunter's Point Riot, better known as H.P. Riot, is excitement.  Excitement in sound, excitement in feel, excitement in movement, and, especially, excitement in their ability as performers.  It's music from the soul.

Makes perfect sense to me.  What we have here is a San Fran funk band that spent a large amount of time touring and preaching the funk gospel to Western Canada, and probably signed the record deal while on tour.  That's how lots of funk bands did it.  I'll let you take a minute to come up with some other 70's funk bands that took the same route.  Go ahead, I'll wait...........I spent a bit of time on it myself and didn't come up with anything either.  Talk about taking the unconventional path.

But enough of all that, it's the music that's important right!  Well the music is good.  Early 70's funk done the right way by young men eager to be heard.  I've managed to get my hands on a second copy (in case my brother wants his back) and I've seen it around here and there so I could get a few more, but it seems outside of Vancouver it's on the rare side.  If you can get your hands on it I would highly recommend it.

For now let me give you a taste.

Song 1, Side 2 "Help Me (Get It On)"