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A distinct tape hiss, a synthesizer that was a sign of the times, and an unplaceable monotonous voice – for 17 years, these sounds fueled one of the internet's most enduring global mysteries - one that has, at last, been solved.
The story goes that a teen named Darius recorded the song off a West German radio station sometime around 1984, sandwiching it between other popular '80s new wave and pop hits on a mixtape that would be rediscovered decades later.
The songs surrounding it on the list were easily identifiable, songs like "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker, Jr. and Golden Earring's "Twilight Zone," but neither Darius nor his older sister Lydia could place their finger on the exact title – or the artist – of a song labeled with a question mark.
So the sibling duo uploaded digitized clips of the song to the internet in 2007 in hopes of cracking the code behind this mystery song, expecting to find an answer rather easily. They found no one had any information about its origins, no music databases turned up results, and finding their answer would take nearly two decades. They would also fuel a music subgenre known as "lostwave" and inspire a slew of obsessively-hunting redditors, YouTube creators, journalists and podcast hosts along the way.
Old Audio Cassette Tapes. (Helena Watson / Contributor)
Last week, one made a breakthrough.
The new wave track formerly known as the "most mysterious song on the Internet" is said to be "Subways of Your Mind" by the little-known German band FEX, and, until now, they remained completely oblivious to the nearly two decades-long search involving their anthem.
Reddit user marijn1412 shared the news with answer-hungry users after an old newspaper article about FEX, who had won a local talent contest in September 1984, piqued his interest. After recovering a band member's name from the article, the redditor reached out, asking for old material from the group. Lo and behold, the same song that had circulated across the internet for ages – albeit different from the radio version – was included among the materials, and those engrossed in the lore finally had their answer.
"I'm just glad and relieved the search is over," the redditor wrote in a post announcing the discovery.
An image of a cassette tape sent by the band member and links to audio files retrieved from it were also attached.
The poster explained in part, "After I emailed him [the band member] back that the song is actually quite a famous ‘lost song,’ he asked me not to go public with it until he spoke with his old band members. In the meantime though the song did get registered at GEMA [a site for music and musicians] and people found out about it. But I'm happy to say that the band members agreed for me to go public with it. So here it is."
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The Reddit application can be seen on the display of a smartphone. Reddit user marijn1412 cracked the code behind the internet's "most mysterious song." (Silas Stein/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Darius and Lydia had been informed about the breakthrough, another poster claimed, adding that there would be more developments to come.
In the comments on the r/TheMysteriousSong subreddit dedicated to the years-long search, people were ecstatic.
"The entire band is still in contact and happy about the newfound attention? Truly the best possible ending," one wrote.
Another said, "Visited this sub after a couple of months and this is the first post I saw. Never thought this song would be found."
"I couldn't really be happier with this :) It's pretty much the perfect outcome, for sooooo many reasons," wrote a third.
Michael Haedrich, who played keyboard and guitar and sang back-up vocals for the band and provided the tape, told German outlet Der Spiegel magazine he and his fellow members are "completely overwhelmed" by the publicity, according to CBS News.
"I thought it was amazing that someone was interested in music by a band that was only successful regionally, if at all, and that was over 40 years ago," he said.
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After uploading clips of the song to the internet in 2007, siblings Darius and Lydia had to wait nearly two decades to find out the name of an unidentifiable song recorded on a 1980s mixtape. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
In a separate interview with German outlet TZ, he reflected on the song fondly, "When I hear the song today, I immediately have positive memories of how we tinkered around in the studio and rehearsal room (with the limited technical possibilities at the time). I think the song has a timeless appeal, and I can listen to and play it today with the same feeling that I had back then."
But before the discovery, Reddit catalyzed the mystery by taking it global in 2019. Rolling Stone even picked up on the craze that year, writing about the "unsolved case."
To many, it sounded like a familiar song from any familiar ‘80s new wave band – but false lead after false lead turned up nothing time and again.
At one point, searchers turned to DJ Paul Baskerville, theorized to have played the song, archivists at the NDR radio station in Hamburg, and the German media for a possible lead, but to no avail.
People dissected everything about the song to learn its details – which synthesizer was used, how the vocals sounded, the dragging of the tape – to maybe determine which year the song was produced or which band had produced it.
FEX is said to have plans to reunite and re-record the song for fans.
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