In 1984, a mysterious song was broadcast on the German broadcast station Norddeutscher Rundfunk. What followed was a 40 year old mystery that would span across the internet and intrigue hundreds of people to get to the bottom of what was colloquially referred to as “The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet.”
A German teenager, Darius S, recorded the mysterious song, which we will be referred to as TMS, off of the North German radio station Norddeutscher Rundfunk. Darius often recorded onto cassette tapes to make mixtapes. On the fateful evening, Darius had not recorded the DJ’s information about the song, in order to get a cleaner recording. This is the most likely reason information, such as the title and artist of TMS were unknown.
Lydia H, Darius’s older sister, would begin an early search for the song in 2007. She would post a cut of the song to a German music forum. The song spread across the internet. It would be posted to Watzatsong, a French music identification website, in 2009 and to Youtube in 2011.
It spawned an entirely new subculture of music, “Lostwave,” which focused on songs whose artist was unknown, or whose entire song had been lost to history. It became a huge part of internet culture. TMMS laid dormant for several more years. Songs such as “Ulterior Motives” “Just a Game” and “Try to Smile Again” had all been found leading up to fall of 2024
In November of 2024. A user on the internet forum site Reddit made an announcement that they had found and contacted the creators of the song. They claimed the artist was a German band called “FEX” (pronounced eff-ex) some of the band members, including guitarist Ture Rückwardt, would come forward and confirm that this was in fact their song. The internet exploded with excitement. Rerecordings were made by the band, vinyl pressings, interviews, the whole thing was a phenomenon. Even a live performance of the song from the 80’s was found, proving once and for all it was in fact FEX’s song.
The community has not died out with the discovery of the song. It is still alive in many parts of the internet. Lots of art and discussion still circulate on Reddit and other forums. I even got my own copy of the vinyl. The sound is great, and it even has a second song by the band on the flip side. To me, it is a manifestation of decades of searching and speculation, a mystery finally coming to a close.
Image courtesy of Joshua Mason ’27.
