Rob Grittion of Moon Island Records was supposed to release a record called "Nico Lost in London," which is now called just "Lost in London," on his tiny little label in the Gulf of Thailand who we have nothing but love and respect over here on Anahata Love Recordings and Cola & Lollipops. All the artists including Jourdan Bourdes, Graham Gold, KyzerSan, and everyone else we absolutely love and even Rob himself we still love even though he had some choice words for Jim Carson today.
You can find the track here on Cola & Lollipops - exclusive at Beatport: https://www.beatport.com/track/lost-in-london/19728450
Pick up the whole release here if you are feeling RANDY! https://www.beatport.com/release/lost-in-london/4809551
For more on the story read here:
Rob decided to tell Carson to "F* OFF!!!" and that he didn't want to work with him anymore after Carson decided that Rob was trolling him on releasing the track and had broken their verbal contract of releasing the track in November. Rob said privately to Jim over Facebook Messenger he thought maybe December or January might be better, you know, right during the middle of everyone traveling and celebrating religious and Christmas and Jewish holidays and such.
At first, Carson said Rob Gritton was very nice and welcoming and talking about the Moon Island Records family, but at some point he just switch off and it was no longer about prioritizing the release they agreed to release in November after signing it in October 2024, and Rob began to back paddle and make conflicting statements and said he was loading the track into the distributor's system for release but he never had any concrete dates which was odd.
Carson had known Rob from his time living in Koh Phangan island Thailand over almost a year in 2021 and they played many of the same gigs together at Playin' Blind's Sabaii Bay Beach Club. Carson emphasized that Rob was always friendly but it was a fake kind of friendly, a reheared act, and he proclaimed himself he had no interest in helping other DJs playing any gigs of book local talent at his gigs around the island. In LA, we would call this a Hollywood DJ that is so full of himself the manure could be sitting right on his face and he wouldn't even know it because he was so proud and full of himself.
Rob even decided he would release his own release ahead of Mr. Carson's release even though the second to last release is from Rob Gritton on the label. You would think if someone were new to the label, you would want to welcome them and do everything you can to make them feel comfortable and prioritized, but Rob stated in a voice message to Mr. Carson that his record was just an option to him and not a huge priority to him, because he was "too busy." You know the people who say they are busy are actually not busy but just lazy and need an excuse for not following up on things. Hopefully, it is just untreated ADHD and not something more serious with Gritton.
We all lead busy lives, especially here at Cola & Lollipops, where sometimes we put out 7-8 releases in a day and have to deal with our various artists and promo lists and mastering engineers. It is a lot of work. Given that Rob hasn't released a track since two weeks before October 25, 2024, about October 9, 2024 for pre-order, which would put the release right around the time they agreed to release Carson's track on October 12th, you think Rob would be itching to get a new track out but Rob said to Carson that Moon Island Records is not a proper professional label but maybe we can get you some gigs at The Jungle Experience and we found that out the hard way; that it just wasn't a figure of speech but a trueism that extended to all aspects of the label - morally, spiritually, ethically, finacially, and responsibility wise.
Even though. the label doesn't handle any mastering of the track, Moon Island charges a 50 pounds "adminstrative fee" for all their releases meaning just for putting it out it has no responsibility to pay you any thing from your release until after it does 50 pounds of record sales which is super shady. We can say this with immunity from any liability because none of our artists have ever signed any agreements with Moon Island Records. But we would hope that Moon Island would stop charging this fee to artists especially when the artists allegedly seem to do all the masters and the artwork.
It looks like all allegedly all his Facebook followers are bought as his Instagram only has 300 followers, but on Facebook they have a following of over 20K followers. Super weird and an indicator of fake followers - allegedly.
Jim Carson only had the best intention for Rob and by offering him to deliver him another track just as good as the last one you would think Rob would be grateful and humble since he was "too busy" and not taking the release as serious as he could. But Rob basically told Carson to eat a "soi dog's feces" and that he never wanted to work with him again, because Carson used the word "hoarding the track" which is essentially what Rob was doing. When a label owner takes an artist's track and holds onto it without a release for no solid reason they are holding the record hostage and hoarding it. Carson has lived with hoarders before and knows that they are all about - exerting unnecessary control onto others and he didn't want to be any part of it so he released the track with Cola & Lollipops, which will be coming out today on Cola & Lollipops.
Rob said that it takes 5 weeks at least to release a track, but somehow Carson is able to do it the very next day. Does Carson have a magical superpower that we don't know about it? Or is Rob just really unprofessional like he says and doesn't know how to run a label properly. By the looks of their recent artwork and Rob's recent release "Sold My Soul," Rob did really sell his soul to the Evil One and instead of being agreeable and kind to Carson, he took out his anger because Carson took one of Rob's toys away that he wanted to play with and own. Carson admits that when he played Rob's track "Sold My Soul" which invokes the name of the Evil One as an empath and highly sensitive person he did feel negative energy from the release even though he thought it was a good track production wise. Maybe if Gritton stop relying on so many Artifical Intelligence tools to produce his records like Drum Monkey and Bass Dragon from Sep at Unison, he could get his "heart and soul back" into the music and "his days would be beautiful," "instead of all messed up," like the song clearly states.
If Carson, can release a record in one day, he believes Rob, with all the same tools can release it in the same time frame or on-time like they agreed to release in late October or early November but no later. Rob said that it takes 5 weeks at least to release a track but somehow Carson is able to do it the very next day.
If you are into casting spells on youself, pick up Gritton's release here: https://www.beatport.com/release/sold-my-soul/4683134
Carson says it doesn't work that way and that artists deserve respect and transparency especially on smaller labels, and especially after a verbal agreement and in writing on October 12, 2024, and tons of tons of phone calls through Messenger, there was no reason for Gritton not to give Carson a proper release date or take the matter seriously. And no reason for him to be upset when he released the track on his own since Gritton once not releasing it and had promised a release date over a month ago. What would any reasonable person do after asking for a release date multiple times to no answer?
Gritton has since left a message on Carson's messenger account and then blocked him. Carson isn't listenting to that message right now because he is tired of the verbal abuse he endured on Thursday morning, Thursday, November, 7th. He may get away with talking to wife like that, but not Carson. Carson thought about blocking him but, he remembered the rule that him and his significant other have about not blocking people. So Carson held back even though he did want to block him, right before Carson left his last message firing back at Gritton, after being cool for many messages. Carson tapped into his zen and meditatative yogi reserves to take the higher road.
We may post the audio clips here for you to decide who was in the right and who was in the wrong. Let the viewers decide. In the meanttime, look out for Jim Carson's "Lost in London" EP with an "extended mix," an "original mix," and "edit" coming out today on Cola & Lollipops. https://www.beatport.com/label/cola-lollipops/84800 (Go here for more singles, EPs, and full length albums from Cola & Lollipops. Also, out on Music Is Medicine - MIM - is Carson' "Voicemail" which is a groovy, breakbeat, rolling-bassline house groove - https://www.beatport.com/release/voicemail/4809088 For all of Carson's work go here: https://www.beatport.com/artist/jim-carson/641001)'
Rob said to Carson, "I think you are the one who needs to grow up and learn some life lessons. I don't do Moon Island Records as my full-time job, I don't make money from it, I do it as an "extra thing," to have. If you would release with us, a lot of radio shows play our music and I could get you into the Hype chart for a fact, and get you a huge stepping stone to the main charts. But I look at you, no offense, I don't see you in the Hype charts or the main charts, and I don't see you there, just in the release charts, and anyone can do that; I just see you in the Beatport releases and anybody can do it that, I know for a fact myself I could buy a track myself and it would chart in the releases, and that's why I don't take you seriously (even though I signed a record to my label and got upset when it was pulled for non-fullfillment of the contract). The hype is like chart is a little like that too, you only need a couple sales to chart.
Gritton continues "The hype chart is great stepping stone and it doesn't take that many sales to chart there either but it is a great stepping stone to get into the bigger charts which everyone cares about." Gritton went on to state he didn't care about releases because you could buy the radio mix and original mix and the album would chart in the Top 100 and that's why I don't care about releases," he says with a smug laugh. "I think if any lesson to be learn is you need to be more patient and I only got the track a month ago, and I didn't even listen to it, until 2 or 3 weeks ago," which is a lie because he said it sounded great and let's do it on October 12th, Carson only sent him the radio edit and extended mix after Rob was sitting on the track for a 3 weeks. "Obviously, we are not compatible in the music industry space, and I don't want to have a row about it, but you said some pretty $hitty things there mate."
"In my life, I have children, I have animals, I produce chillout music I get paid for, it pays me quite well, I produce Jungle Experience which is a headspin you wouldn't believe how many DJs and artists and agents I talk to and want to play there, I have villas, but squezing your release in... even though I would have done it... why should I drop everything... why are you so important?"
Rob Gritton's final words to Carson were "you obviously have serious issues and people have warned me about you and I didn't listen, I said he seems like an alright guy, but you have shown your true colors. And your album cover was $h!t. Nobody gives a $hit about the Beatport release chart and I could have gotten you into the Hype chart and into the Big chart which people do care about. But I am not going to waste my time with this anymore. You called me ignorant and I think you are a loser and nobody cares about your music and that's why it doesn't chart because you release an edit, an original, and an extended mix."
What Rob fails to realize as an unprofessional record label owner is that you release an edit for the streaming sites to play because nobody wants to listen to a long drums intro and outtro. You release an original mix that is shorter than the extended mix because some DJs like shorter tracks and don't play extended versions or edits.
All I did was say I would give him another track to release instead of this one and some advice about scheduling releases and respecting the time and effort of other artists like I do on my label. We get out our artists releases out the very next week after we get a final master.
After reviewing our records, an anonymous source sent us these private messages between Jim Carson of Anahata Love Recordings, Cola & Lollipops, and Music Is Medicine - MIM and Rob Gritton of Moon Island Records.
A lot of people are known to talk in the music industry. A good friend of ours, Leila Salazar at Amazon Watch said there are two kinds of people in this world, talkers and doers. It was fair for Carson to presume that Gritton was no longer serious about putting out the release and he even hinted he didn't like the artwork provided to which Carson gave Gritton a couple of options - 1) you can do the artwork Rob, it doesn't matter to me and 2) I will send you a new track when you are ready to release it. Maybe now isn't a good time for you and I would rather have you relaxed and in a good head space mentally when promoting the release and for everyone to be happy with a "win-win" situation.
But Gritton refused to take these options and just said, "Ok, we can go with the "boobs," and that was it. No mention of a release date or any follow-up communication. At that point, Carson knew Rob was not in a good head space mentally and perhaps needed a break from his responsibilities so Carson took the track to his distributor and released it within 24 hours.
Enjoy Cola & Lollipops and remember it doesn't cost you anything to be kind to someone today and please don't hoard tracks. Share the gift of music with everyone!!!
Now back on Cola & Lollipops where the music is sweet and so are the artists and label owners. Enjoy, sweet, sweet house music!!! - Love, Cola & Lollipops www.colandlollipops.com www.musicismedicine.tv https://www.beatport.com/label/cola-lollipops/84800
Remember to pick up the release - Jim Carson "Lost in London" - here at Beatport and let us know what your favorite track is at the moment: https://www.beatport.com/release/lost-in-london/4809551
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