lost.

It is something of a psychological tendency to associate one thing, whether it a voice, a smell, a street, a comfortable position, a face or just about anything with something else. I think it could be said that many do this with music for moments in our lives that fit so tenderly into whatever groove one might hear. But I find it refreshing when a producer or artist recreates moments in their lives for me to witness through sound, instead of the alternative when I am forced to create moments from sound that tell no story but to merely exists and swallow the silence (something I avoid the habit of doing) . For me “Mickey Mouse Operation” by producer Laurent Clerc under his moniker Little People does exactly that, in that it creates experience with such a strong imaginary or cinematic quality that if puts you in the middle of the song instead of a mere listener.

This might be why I can only find a limited collection of his works that includes the full length release, “Mikey Mouse Operation” from 2006, a few unreleased tracks and some DJ mixes. How many stories can one design before there’s nothing left to tell? However where many may chalk this up as one-hit-wonder, I couldn’t disagree more. Every one of the tracks off “Mickey Mouse Operation” is a display of tight hip-hop groove design, brilliant sound orchestration, and of conceptual continuity that reminds me of well engineered story arc. The term “one-hit-wonder” should never be found next to anyone who created an artfully executed display of sound weaved from memories and ideals like Laurent Clerc. You may never see anything from Little People or Laurent Clerc again, but when he talked he had something to say.