Porcelain Shield, Paper Sword [LP]

Mary Sue And The Clementi Sound Appreciation Club - Porcelain Shield, Paper Sword [LP]

This is what you get when an emcee/producer is fed on a diet of abstract hip-hop, Southeast Asian samples, and Taoist folklore. Together with the Clementi Sound Appreciation Club (a five-piece band of up-and-coming musicians schooled in jazz from the local scene in Singapore), Mary Sue melts samples with live instrumentation on Porcelain Shield, Paper Sword. At the core of the album is the tale of a time-traveling oracle, struggling to find meaning in the modern world-where ancient wisdom feels fragile, and truth is ever-shifting. A reinterpretation of idioms shapes its journey, where spiritual pursuits feel performative, and where the weight of the past clashes with an uncertain future. The music mirrors this tension: phrases of Gamelan music dissolve into smoky brass, spectral melodies unravel over off-kilter drums, and time bends through layered textures. Porcelain Shield, Paper Sword is both a reckoning and a dream, where echoes of the past find new life in the chaos of now. A porcelain shield shatters on impact; a paper sword folds before it cuts. It's about the constant, fragile push-and-pull between aesthetics and money, tradition and progress, meaning and spectacle. Featuring Agung Mango and Nakama. 01. Intro 02. Oracle Bone Script 03. Mosquito 04. Thief And The Bell 05. Horse Accupuncture (Feat. Agung Mango & Nakama) 06. The Well 07. Haste 08. Interlude 09. Dragon Tail 10. Minesweeper 11. Tiger And The Ceiling 12. Snake Head 13. Crabs 14. Iron Butterflies 15. Grace 16. Libations/Roots