Mopsy Flopsy -- Umi to Kimi（海とキミ）

 

When I first encountered the band Mopsy Flopsy, I had snarkily assumed that it named itself from some puppet character on a kids' show. Whatever the origins though, it's again one of those acts that doesn't have a lot of information and I had to go searching over hill and dale to bring disparate pieces together. The first piece was actually the J-Wiki article for tarento Mari Shinohara（篠原麻里）who had started out as a child model and then became a back dancer for Chisato Moritaka（森高千里）on the 1995 Kohaku Utagassen. Almost a decade later in 2004, she became the drummer for Mopsy Flopsy (which would later change its name to Michiluca).

As for the rest of Mopsy Flopsy, there is vocalist Natsumi Shiraishi（白石なつみ）, guitarist Muneyoshi Minakura（皆倉崇良）, keyboardist Yuuta Tajiri（田尻有太）, bassist Yuuki Ono（小野裕基）, percussionist Rie Miyatake（宮武理恵）and then Shinohara on the drums. That's about the most solid information that I have found thus far on the band; I'm not sure whether Mopsy Flopsy had already been around before Shinohara's time with them, and I don't know if Michiluca is still active, or for that matter, how extensive their discography is.

But in any case, in November 2006, Mopsy Flopsy released their first album "A Beginner's Guide To Mopsy Flopsy" which is about as appropriate a title as one can get for a little-known indies band. Fellow "Kayo Kyoku Plus" contributor HRLE92, aka Island Fantasia on YouTube, posted the entire album onto the platform, and he put it best when he described them as "funky, mellow and carefree". A Tower Records article on the group had an even more descriptive report by stating that it was as if Rickie Lee Jones had tackled the works of Ivan Lins.

For today though, I will just cover the album's first song "Umi to Kimi" (The Ocean and You). Beginning with a pensive piano, a groovy vibe then enters the scene along with Shiraishi's soulful and playful vocals. The song sounds perfect for a stylish Tokyo café's background music playlist and the rest of the album continues these peacefully good times with some bossa nova thrown in.