Ethiopian - Studio One Records - 1980

In 1980, Leonard Dillon from arguably one of rocksteady’s finest vocal harmony duos in the sixties, The Ethiopians, returned from a start / stop career in music (from the middle of the seventies after the accidental death of his long time vocal partner, Stephen Taylor) to voice over some of the finest vintage Studio One rhythms.
This is one of my favourite Studio One albums although when released to the public it did not sell in large quantities.
Towards the very end of the seventies, roots reggae music started to lose popularity amongst the youth of Jamaica and in fact the world.
The new sound preferred by the youth being a harsher stripped down, no thrills, no horns, no organ sound pioneered by Roots Radics, Sly and Robbie and others, recording for young producers like Junjo Lawes and Linval Thompson and mixed by the up and coming Scientist, all working with countless young singers and DJ’s.
Studio One Records could not keep up with the times as well as the recording studios like Channel One, who owned the in-house record labels like Hit Bound and Well Charge releasing records by the likes of Barrington Levy, Frankie Paul and Ranking Trevor.
Studio One tried hard to keep up with a couple of Sugar Minott albums as well as albums by Brigadier Jerry and Lone Ranger, but the old time rhythms just sounded too familiar and stale to the youth at the end of the seventies and the dawn of the eighties. .
Despite all that, this Leonard Dillon solo session (under his long standing and well deserved moniker, The Ethiopian) recording new versions of some of his best songs from the late sixties and early seventies at Coxsone Dodds' Studio One, to my ears at least, is a marriage made in Heaven, if such a place exists.
Below text a snippet of an interview with Leonard Dillon from the reggae-vibes website.
Q: But what about this 'Everything Crash' album, this is a very consistent album and one that is highly regarded by Ethiopians fans all over. If the Ethiopians name is dropped somewhere, you often hear talk of that record.
A: Yeah. You see, that album now, I just did that song over for Coxsone and he called the album 'Everything Crash'.
Q: Most of those tracks were voiced in the same session, or this was compiled stretching over a long period of recordings from the seventies up to the early eighties or something like that?
A: Yes, some of them.
Q: So how come you went back to Downbeat again?
A: Well, because I left the music scene for a while and the easiest way to be heard right now is the Studio One label, so I just went back and did that before I did my album 'cause whenever time you want to be known, yunno, the Studio One label is a label that really expose you. Everyone love Studio One and are familiar with Studio One, everyone rates Studio One. So you don't really - Coxsone is a man that don't really pay money, yunno. You don't do music for Coxsone for money, you do music just for the label's sake, to really expose you. Because Studio One label go wide, y'know.

[@manosverdesdetijeradiaguit1043]

Beatyfull beatifull music of Leonard Dillon..lo escuchaba cuando tenia 16 años ...ahora tengo 37 años lo vuelvo a escuchar y todavía hace mi corazon Bombear fuerte ...desde Coquimbo, chile....saludos a todos lo.que están escuchando el día de hoy esta joya

[@colinmoyston2481]

My favorite group. Mr Dillon what a powerful voice. Studio one. Da best

[@hebrewenglishbibleread9941]

As a well-known San Diego reggae aficionado used to always say "If you don't love Studio One you don't love reggae." Ya mon, this is among the great Jamaican releases. Thanks.

[@tonyjohnson1864]

E Ethiopians forever

[@blvkoblsk]

beautiful record.

[@hackneygeezer3314]

really good classic. on full bass now...

[@lucaspizzolo5281]

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