The “most mysterious song on the internet” identified after 17-year search

The 17-year-long search for what has been dubbed the “most mysterious song on the internet” has been solved.

‘Subways of Your Mind’ was recorded in 1983 by a German new wave band FEX, who reportedly had no idea the online search was taking place.

It had in fact been uploaded to Youtube in 2020, as the search was ongoing, by a user called gooseman.

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‘Subways of Your Mind’ initially surfaced online in 2007 when YouTube user Lydia uploaded a recording of it that she had taken from the radio with her brother Darius.

It didn’t show up on any music identifying software, so audiophiles took on the challenge of tracking it down based on the lead singer’s accent and the instruments being used, quickly classifying it as belonging to the 1980s new wave genre.

In 2019, the movement garnered global attention when it was uploaded to a reddit subforum called r/TheMysteriousSong, which currently has 61,000 members.

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The first clue unlocked was the song's year of recording, calculated based on the release date of other tracks on the radio show, the use of a Yamaha DX7 synth (manufactured in 1983), and its specific frequency, that was identified as only being present within German recordings of that era.

Then, this week, a user called Marijn1412 said that they had finally identified the song after researching bands that played at an event in the 1980s organised by a public broadcaster in northern Germany.

The reddit user had contacted a former FEX member, who subsequently sent the much-sought-after song and revealed its name.

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"After I emailed him 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," explained Marijn1412.

"In the meantime, though, the song did get registered at [the German performance rights organization] GEMA and people found out about it. But I'm happy to say that the band members agreed for me to go public with it."

The response online has been one of relief and elation, with one user (depressedchiakikin) on reddit saying they were on the verge of “happy tears at the discovery”.

Meanwhile comments under the Youtube video mainly discuss whether or not gooseman had been "gatekeeping" the song all this time. “Bro knew and didn't talk about it,” commented @kyannlerin6543.

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“The funniest part of this whole thing is this person likely had no clue they were holding onto the answer to something so massive. My dude is probably confused AF as to why they're so suddenly getting so much traffic. Lol,” says @Infamouslbx.

Speaking with the German publication Tz, 68-year-old Michael Hädrich, the band’s keyboardist, guitarist, and backing vocalist, said: “We hadn’t noticed all this internet phenomenon at all, mainly naturally, because the title of the song was not known on the Internet and was therefore no relation.

He also revealed that FEX are planning to re-record the track and even film a music video.

Meena Sears is Mixmag's Digital Intern, follow her on Instagram