Culture "The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet" has been found! The song is called Subways Of Your Mind by FEX.

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fex tape.jpg
So here's the story in short:
About two weeks ago I came across an old newspaper article in the Nordwest Zeitung archive, while researching Hörfest bands. The article was about a band called FEX from Kiel, who won a talent contest in Bremen in Sep 1984 and their music was described as Rock with Wave and Pop influences. It also mentioned their members and one of them I recognised from a Hörfest 83 band called Phret. I managed to get in touch with him and asked him if he still had some old material from those bands. He then sent me some of the songs he made with FEX and Phret... and lo and behold, one of them was titled Subways Of Your Mind. It's a slightly different version from the one we know: https://vocaroo.com/19NFyeqYi7Zj
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. In the mean time though the song did get registered at 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. So here it is.
I'm sure there will be a lot of questions and I hope the band can answer these themselves in the future. I'm just glad and relieved the search is over :)
EDIT (additional information):
https://preview.redd.it/x6lslr53jvy...bp&s=5d699794d26d8a0d998c3f9b7bee1a28b205ef7b
Heart In Danger: https://vocaroo.com/1kAK2RMZMO3T
Talking Hands:
https://vocaroo.com/15IQ8yYROCAD
fex tape.jpg
 
Just the acoustic performance from above clipped out. Still holds up.

This is how music is supposed to be. No synthesizers, remixers, computer algorithms and auto-tuners. Just pure talent and sound.


Also, the drummer has been found! The band is back together!

 
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Just the acoustic performance from above clipped out. Still holds up.
That's really nice. I actually like it better than both of the original versions. It's nice to see these old dudes finally get some appreciation and be able to do it acoustic. It's kind of funny they were just living their lives to the point they didn't even know their ancient song was one of the biggest memes of lost media. They were obviously not narcissistic jackasses who spent their lives Googling themselves.

Also, that whole acoustic thing was one of the few MTV features I really liked, when they had bands do the "unplugged" acoustic versions of their own music. It really separated out the talentless.
 
That's really nice. I actually like it better than both of the original versions. It's nice to see these old dudes finally get some appreciation and be able to do it acoustic. It's kind of funny they were just living their lives to the point they didn't even know their ancient song was one of the biggest memes of lost media. They were obviously not narcissistic jackasses who spent their lives Googling themselves.

Also, that whole acoustic thing was one of the few MTV features I really liked, when they had bands do the "unplugged" acoustic versions of their own music. It really separated out the talentless.
I am really hype for their studio recording and music video. Hopefully the director brought in doesn't fuck it up. This actually has the same level of legendary potential that was Johnny Cashes cover of Hurt.

There is something really mystical about musics ability to escape time. Pachabels Canon in D Major very famously did not become famous until the 1970s and 80s when it started to get radio traction more then a century after it's release. Now it's essential listening.

The fact that all the artists are still alive is a miracle. Hopefully that can be captured. Along with the absolute joy these men feel to be young again. You can see it on their faces.
 
I am really hype for their studio recording and music video. Hopefully the director brought in doesn't fuck it up. This actually has the same level of legendary potential that was Johnny Cashes cover of Hurt.
I like how Trent was originally extremely skeptical of Johnny Cash's cover and then openly admitted that Cash had owned that song and it was no longer his own.
 
This is nice. I don't think this song is mindblowing or anything, but it's a solid little 80s rock/pop song, a more fun kind of music than what's mainstream today, and I honestly think that the most positive aspect of the song is that it had legions of people on the internet engage in some sleuthing practice over something innocuous and pleasant like this.

No political activism, no dirty or dark drama, no real life criminal mystery, just finding out who the guys were who made a cool song a long time ago.
After many years, it finally paid off, and all the eyes on this thing helps expose more youth to more fun varieties of music.
 
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I give it a 7/10. It's okay, not bad not great.

It will get overhyped due to the whole mystery element around it.

That's fine though, it's still better than most of the popular music today.
It's on the less catchy side of "generic 80s song"
 
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It's on the less catchy side of "generic 80s song"
But it hits right in the Nostalgia in a way that modern media can never accomplish. Its generic yes, but its familiar, and a memory from a better time. Its an artifact of history that managed to survive time. Consider the amphoras of Greece that sit in national museums. They are all without fail shitty mass produced crap that middle class Greeks kept in their pantry. But they survived two thousand years and now they sit in the British Museum, the National Gallery and the Louvre.

They aren't examples of the pinnacle of classic greek art. They are examples of a time that is now gone, and yet inexplicably has survived to now. This song serves a similar purpose IMO.
 
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