An electro-pop anthem for misfits and don’t-wanna-fits of all persuasions, a remix of an old favourite from Songs From The Age Of Human Error and a punk jazz poetry jam inspired by a boy racer.
Only Robots Need To Think In Binary by Kerry JKMonth: March 2019
Songs From The Age of Human Error
Ten tracks (plus one bonus remix) of eclectic and eccentric jazz, blues, rock and funk. Recorded in 2015, remastered and reissued with extra tracks in 2019.
The digital download from Bandcamp also includes an 8-page lyric booklet in PDF format.
Track by Track:
01 – The Age Of Human Error –Inspired by a quote from Florence King, who complained that modern Americans were “asleep at the wheel” and “living in the age of human error”. But who says the age of human error is such a bad thing?
02 – Don’t Want to Choose –For all who welcome the non-binary shades of grey and delight in eating their cake and having it too.
03 – A Falling Tree –Dedicated to the underground army of creative people who produce art not for fame, profit or even attention, but because it’s who they are and what they do.
04 – Yourself –Inspired by a number of selfless individuals I’ve known who will give their all for everyone and deserve permission to suit themselves more often.
05 – Let Go From The Get Go (Everybody Wants To Be Somebody) –A funk jam on the futility of trying too hard to please others.
06 – Idiot –A two-finger salute to bullies, homophobes, racists, bigots and all they represent.
07 – Macho Mouth –A solo guitar blues based on the old standard Mama Don’t Allow, inspired by an annoyingly tenacious gay stalker I once had.
08 – P.T.S.U.C. –The tale of an abused child.
09 – Life As A Tourist –Notes from a world of people searching for a life that will better co-operate with their understanding of How Things Should Be.
10 – The Happy Fool (Not Going To Fake Anymore) –Being culturally adventurous is all good and well, but might it be easier to just give up fighting and subscribe to all the bland comforts of the mainstream?
11 – Let Go From The Get Go (Sola Sulcus Remix) – Lest we forget. A groove and chorus remix/reprise.
BONUS TRACKS ON THE 2019 REMASTER EDITION:
12 – No Such Word As Impossible – A funk yarn inspired by a story I remembered from a school assembly, about an allegedly “wise man” who cut the word “impossible” out of his dictionary. This demo recording came in my “no fixed abode-a-wee” period around 2011-2014, when I was recording on a laptop wherever I happened to be.
13 – Rainbow Round (An Experiment) – also from the No Fixed Abode-a-wee period (specifically around 2013 for this one), this was basically a stress test to see what my little laptop and dynamic mic setup could cope with. The track features many, many layered and overlapping vocal parts, two complete multitracked drumkits, guitars, basses, synths and orchestral arrangements built up from individual midi instrument parts.
Written, performed and produced by Kerrry Jackson-Kay
Cover image “Die Hexe Mit Eule Radierung” by Heinrich Vogeler (1895)
Human:Beautiful
Produced over a two year period, Human:Beautiful has been through numerous reboots and re-recordings as I worked to decide on a cohesive production sound while working through some traumatic personal issues – what I have ended up with is a sound incorporating jazz and acoustic performances with huge electronic arrangements exploring the full emotional range of the misfit life, coming through depression, anxiety and finding the will to be yourself.
Human:Beautiful Track by track:
Click title to view lyrics
01 Human:Beautiful – a harmony acappella chant by way of introduction and foreshadowing of things to come.
02 Never Been Rich/Never Been Bored – an uptempo jam with a Lust For Life type groove and a quirky approach to mid-life reflection.
03 Sunlight In The Heart Of The Machine – with a title inspired by a vision of an oppressive industrial environment punctuated by a beam of sunlight coming through a crack in the ceiling, this is symphonic alt-rock with the message that, no matter how harsh and oppressive those in charge may be, this is still a world worth fighting for.
04 Arrested For Smiling – faux big band jazz with sneaky time signature changes and satirical lyrics on the inevitability of distrust. The production notes for this one included the phrase “make the piano explode”.
05 Be True – A stirring electro-pop anthem for the misunderstood, downtrodden and generally hard done by.
06 Edith Alone – A raw vocal performance to bare guitar and piano accompaniment tells the tale of a fierce, deluded and abandoned matriarch with topical political allegories.
07 Parallel – An industrial pop piece on dreams and the detailed worlds therein.
08 Really Down Day – an electronic blues jam exploring depression, anxiety and the battle to overcome.
09 Lottery Of Birth – originally written for the National Theatre of Scotland’s Songs Of A New Gendernation album and Beyond The Binary symposium, this is 80s style electro funk with big harmonies and a statement about refusing to be limited by gender stereotypes.
10 Quiet Time – a soft piano instrumental, a moment of calm.
11 I Am (Human:Beautiful) – defiant, operatic and with a new wave rock style inspired by the likes of The Stranglers, XTC and Toyah, this is a new, completely re-recorded version of the 2016 single that began the working cycle leading to this album.
All songs written, composed, performed and produced by Kerry Jackson-Kay
Artwork by Lasergun Lapwing
Kerry and Joanna Live at the Ivy House
Released as a cut-price “official bootleg”, this is a full solo piano & vocal set recorded at the Ivy House, London on 2nd August 2018. Currently downloadable from Bandcamp (Flac download recommended to avoid gaps between tracks) and streamable on Spotify and Deezer.
This gig was promoted by Vanishing Point, cover photographs by Paul Cook.
Kerry and Joanna Live at the Ivy House by Kerry JK
Biog
‘Quicksand’ Kerry JK wrote his first song aged 5 – it was called “Every Time I Die I Get Buried”. To his deep gratitude his parents sent for a piano teacher instead of a child psychologist and he’s been intriguing and alienating audiences ever since, under an assortment of solo guises and bands. At one point he was the world’s only performing drag escapologist.
Proudly gender and genre fluid, Kerry’s style of misfit art pop incorporates jazz, funk, rock, layered choral vocals and anything else that fits his muse at the time. He sums up his writing with the mission statement, “Be yourself, as yourself. There is no greater fulfilment and no sweeter revenge”.
Born in the Lake District and growing up on the Isle of Wight, Kerry spent his formative years playing and singing everywhere he could, in school and county groups, in hotels and restaurants and as a member of any band that would have him. A county music award enabled him to travel to London to take jazz piano lessons with Nick Weldon, before he moved to Leeds in 1995 to enroll in the BA Jazz Studies course at the City of Leeds College of Music. There he formed and ran the Great Escape Big Band, an anarchic jazz orchestra featuring many players who went on to international careers. He self-produced the solo acoustic albums Playing With No Friends and Proud To Be A Failed Waiter, was a regular house band member at the Duck and Drake Jazz Sessions and toured and recorded with James O’Hara’s blues band The Detonators, before a bout of tendonitis left him unable to perform, leaving him to focus for a while on singing and studio music.
Turning to darker and more electronic music under the name Miles From Anywhere, he released the album Ending through Peoplesound in 1999, followed up by the Submission EP in connection with a festival performance. He settled on the name Quicksand Kerry for the electro-punk album Sick Parody of Normality in 2001 while touring and recording with Electric James & The Ladykillers. He also set up and recorded a collaboration with leftfield poet Mik Artistik (in his pre-Ego Trip days) and developed his first femme performance persona as gothic chanteusse Felicia Devile, resulting in the mini album Witching Hour.
In 2003 he joined gothic industrial band Zeitgeist Zero, going on to record two acclaimed albums, the eponymous Zeitgeist Zero and the Jon Fryer-produced Dead To The World. The band toured around the UK and Europe, including an appearance at the Wave Gotik Treffen festival in Leipzig. Kerry also developed a sideline as a juggler, magician and escape artist, most successfully as the singing drag escapologist Helen Held (The Girl No Man Can Hold), under which persona he was a regular performer at Manchester’s The Cabaret of Ida Bucket and was a part of the World Escape Artist Relay event in 2007.
In 2009 he moved to Northampton to be with his now wife, stepping away from touring in order to move full time into the classroom as a teacher. He gained qualified teacher status and taught at a number of schools while producing studio releases in order to keep his musical skills up, under his own name and as industrial metal project Player Versus X?. In 2015 he rebooted as Kerry JK with the album Songs From The Age of Human Error, followed up with the 3-track single I Am, which was released to coincide with Trans Visibility Day, and Sunlight In The Heart Of The Machine, both of which developed into his 2018 album Human:Beautiful. Side projects at this time included the acapella vocal looping project Unangelic Voices and the experimental trans jazz vocal persona Jenni Bluish, which led to 2016’s No Fury EP and collaboration with the National Theatre of Scotland’s Adam World’s Choir, culminating in his curating and producing the trans and non-binary compilation album Songs Of A New Gender Nation, released in 2017. Kerry also spoke and performed by video link at NTS’s Beyond the Binary symposium.
In 2018 Kerry released and promoted the album Human:Beautiful, the climatic track for which was played by Tom Robinson on BBC 6 Music and described by him as “an anthem for trans and non-binary people everywhere”. Kerry went on to join the moderating team on Tom’s site Fresh On The Net .
In 2019, his song “Game of Games”, from the first in a planned trilogy of concept EPs, was nominated for “Best song” in the Radio Wigwam Online Radio Awards. Third album Tales of Addictive Games and Exotic Pets was released in 2020, bringing together material from the EPs Addictive Games, Exotic Pets and Only Robots Need to Think in Binary.
Kerry now divides his time between his own musical projects, writing for the MABNO blog and Fresh On The Net and teaching and lecturing on musicianship, singing and production for the University of Wolverhampton.
