Teignmouth Electron is the solo project of Maureen Hallomas, otherwise known for involvement in projects like Polly Shang Kuan Band, Rubber Demon, Leopard Leg, Men Oh Pause and more. Seen and heard most often in a live performance guise, Teignmouth Electron has nonetheless produced a small yet significant back catalogue of recorded work going as far back as 2007 on labels such as Hex Out Tapes, Chocolate Monk and Research laboratories.
Even within an already microscopic community of oddballs resident among Brighton’s experimental art and music underground, Teignmouth Electron has continually stood way out on its own through deceptively crafted, conceptually guided works drenched in fun, bizarre and often profound sentimental atmosphere. With ‘You Are Not Alone’ Hallomas takes us back in time via two archival pieces derived from tape recordings predating the official existence of the project. Material from a cassette made in 2001 is presented here as ‘From Beyond the Attic’, a pair of tracks in which a single possessed tape walkman acts as conduit for a symphony of broken electromagnetic noise and interference. Punctuating the murk are snatches of barely discernible radio broadcasts and, shockingly, nearby phone conversations somehow picked up and voyeuristically captured on the tape unbeknownst to the callers. Where these tracks are presented largely unedited and unadorned, ‘Science TAC’ sees a more compositional strategy put to work, with Hallomas pulling apart, processing and rearranging a 1999 recording of she and her friend improvising surreal skits and zero competence musical performance.
Hallomas’ treatment of her sources situates ‘You Are Not Alone’ in a curious cross section of listening outcomes. The light touch interventions of ‘Science TAC’ bring to mind an esoteric Hörspiel production, whilst ‘From Beyond the Attic’ inhabits spaces of audio vérité and found sound art object via whacked out mail art noise experimentation. The personal significance of the recordings weaves palpable imagery and meaning into their re-use in album form, chronicling the funny, strange and emotionally transformative power of sound and image in the telling of life's tales and demarcation of its key events.
