Post-Punk Monk

Fluid Japan Explore A Wide Spectrum Of What “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” Has To Offer On New EP

Posted on November 26, 2024 by postpunkmonk

Fluid Japan: Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence – US – DL [2024]

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence 3:43
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence [Tokyo Mix] 4:40
Come See Me To The Moon 3:17
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence [Yukiguni Mix] 3:36
An Extra In God’s Great Film 4:35

We are still in catching up mode but this release is worth the effort! It dropped last Thursday and I immediately bought it only to finally hear it today. We’ve not heard any covers yet from the Art Rocking Fluid Japan collective, but there’s a first time for everything. In this case, it was an extended homage to the group’s foundational influence, the late Ryuichi Sakamoto. And they have sought to dig beneath the song’s surface to explore hidden trajectories in this trilogy of versions that forms the backbone of this very pianocentric EP.

When the band first coalesced in Tokyo in the late 90s, the song was a staple of the band’s live sets and first practices. Now that the band is virtual and spread out widely, they have returned to their roots with some widely disparate versions of the iconic song. The EP was primarily down to two members of Fluid Japan flexing their musical muscles this time. Reiko Minimikawa faithfully covered the song on the Kyoto Mix with delicate solo piano with crystalline sustain being the entirety of the performance. The gentle breakdown in the coda being the only real point of departure here.

The band have stated that the Tokyo Mix was an attempt to place the song into a different Sakamoto context; that of the superb “Neo Geo” album. This time the piano was abetted with synthesizers and drum machines. The former courtesy of Minamikawa with Walt Wistrand on synths and drum machine. Delicate synths dispersed throughout the extended intro until the familiar piano theme manifested in the bulk of the song. As accompanied by subtle hi-hat and rim hits. The glassy reverb of the piano notes in the coda were an elegant lead-in for the breakdown in the lower end of the scale this time.

Minamikawa’s solo piano single from 2023, “Come See Me To The Moon,” [which we missed reviewing last year] fits into the conceit and context of this EP marvelously, with its wistful yet sophisticated melody being more than adequate company for the song that changed everything for Sakamoto. Then the Yukigini Mix of Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” re-set the context of the song within a framework of only synthesizers and elegant, spectral, choral patches adding an airbrushed sheen not a million miles away from the vibe of a song like “I’m Not In Love.”

Finally, Walt Wistrand added one more track, which struck a Harold Budd/Cocteau Twins vibe while having a title that Bill Nelson should probably be a little jealous of. “An Extra In God’s Great Film” sported a drum track here but it was so subtle that it almost faded out at the song’s midpoint. Making room for more choral patches to swoop into the mix and soon graciously depart. Leaving the climax of the song to the reverberant piano.

Fluid Japan have produced a trilogy of Sakamoto’s most indelible melody that runs a fascinating spectrum along the Sakamoto/Budd axis of sound and to this they’ve added two of their most coherent contributions to result in a keyboard driven EP that made only scant concessions to notions of rhythm while exploring vistas of placid, tranquil beauty. While there’s certainly no harm in leaving the audience wanting more, their success with “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” here suggested that some enterprising musician might one day craft an entire album from the song.

As evidenced here, it’s certainly sturdy enough to hang such a conceit on. But until then, we can revel this fascinating sidestep in Fluid Japan’s journey that paid generous melodic dividends and is recommended to any and all fans of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Harold Budd, and even the ambient side of Bill Nelson as well. Due to the licensing costs, this single will set us back $3.75 but I felt it was worth more, and I know for a fact that the $3.75 doesn’t quite cover the licensing fees so make sure you top off when buying. DJ, hit that button!

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Posted in Immaterial Music, Record Review | Tagged 2024, cover version, Fluid Japan, Ryuichi Sakamoto | 8 Comments

Darkwave Duo Les Longs Adieux Now A Trio On Latest Single “La Luna.”

Posted on November 25, 2024 by postpunkmonk

les longs adieux nov 24 trio — Johnny Rainbow [L] on bass joins Federica Garenna and Frank Marrelli in making Les Longs Adieux a trio

The Italian band with the French name is back! On Friday we got a new notification from the Italian duo Les Longs Adieux that they had a new single so I hot footed it to Bandcamp to buy their latest offering for a review today. I had really loved their “Vertigo” album from earlier this year and have listened to it often; reluctant to remove it from my personal device after my review was written. At the time, I couldn’t wait to see what they ended up doing next, and as it transpires, I didn’t have to wait long. The new single was “La Luna” and Federica Garenna and Frank Marrelli are now joined by Johnny Rainbow [ex Skull Daze] on bass guitar. Always a smart move for a duo wanting to move to the next level and fatten their sound.

The band had just committed this one to hard drive during the summer with Rainbow adding his four-string fretwork earlier this month. The band stated that they were listening to music from the golden age of Post-Punk, particularly The Damned’s sublime “Phantasmagoria,” so as an ardent admirer of that disc, let’s dive in, shall we?

Les Longs Adieux: La Luna – DL – IT [2024]

La Luna 4:36

A deceptively gentle intro with sustained synths set against open guitar chords quickly got down to gritty business when the drums jacked up the tempo and the song roared out of the starting blocks. The deep bassthrob of Rainbow was already adding new animal power to the band’s vibe. So when Ms. Garenna began singing with the passionate, fortissimo delivery we’ve come to expect from just hearing her last album, it rocked with a potent force.

Frank Marrelli’s guitars were tightly focused as well; eschewing atmosphere for sheer dynamic punch. Federica’s synths played minor key counterpoint to the drive of the music; sparring with Marrelli as he injected an almost Rockabilly energy into the middle eight, which raised the stakes for the song’s climax. Listen here.

The band were definitely into the Rock zone for this one. Taking a step away from the dark, crystalline beauty of their last album. Did it evince a legitimate influence from the likes of “Phantasmagoria?” Yes, this single could have been bedfellows with material like “Street Of Dreams” with singer Frederica being worlds apart from Dave Vanian, of course! But I’d be lying if I didn’t also detect another complementary vibe at work here…namely that of Billy Idol. Though I much prefer the singer here!

We’ll see if this is a one-off or the first taste of a new Les Longs Adieux album to come. But for now if you want dark, driving Rock music with a Post-Punk sting you would do well to grab this one to help heat up those cold winter nights we’re starting to get in the Northern Hemisphere. The DL is name your price but I urge you to be generous and I’m already regretting not just paying the €17.84 for all 9 releases by the band in their Bandcamp store. This band can be habit forming. DJ, hit that button!

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Posted in Immaterial Music, Record Review | Tagged 2024, Bandcamp, Les Longs Adieux | 2 Comments

OMD Announce A Very Different Kind Of Blu-Ray

Posted on November 22, 2024 by postpunkmonk

There’s apparently more on heaven and earth than just surround sound on Blu-Rays [and DVDs]

So yesterday we were discussing the Dolby Atmos® attention being given to the late Imperial Period of the Simple Minds canon. Another former Virgin Records band that has also been active in the 21st century and carving out an extension to their legacy are core collection faves Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark. At roughly the same time as those Simple Minds Blu-Rays with surround and alternate mixes were announced, OMD managed to do something different with a Blu-Ray.

They are putting out a video to watch on our televisions. Old school style. And while, yes, it will contain their latest album and b-sides in high-res audio, they look to be old fashioned 2.0 stereo. But that’s not the raison d’être of it all. They have apparently made seven music videos from the album and they are putting them in a mediabook package with reading, watching, and listening content all in one package. The book is a 32 page hardcover with lots of features for our perusal. Here’s what’s served up in your choice of Blu-Ray or even [gasp!] DVD.

OMD: BAUHAUS STAIRCASE ARTefact

• Bauhaus Staircase (Music Video)
• Slow Train (Music Video)
• Veruschka (Music Video)
• Anthropocene (Music Video)
• Kleptocracy (Music Video)
• Look At You Now (Music Video)
• Evolution Of Species (Music Video)

• In Conversation with Andy McCluskey & Andy Whitehurst (The Making Of Bauhaus Staircase’s Videos)

• Evolution Of Species/Anthropocene (Live Visuals – Audio Live From Edinburgh) • Kleptocracy (Live Visuals – Audio Live From Edinburgh)
• Bauhaus Staircase (Live Visuals – Audio Live From The O2, London)
• Veruschka (Live Visuals – Audio Live From The O2, London)

• Bauhaus Staircase (Hi-Res Audio)
• Anthropocene (Hi-Res Audio)
• Look At You Now (Hi-Res Audio)
• G.E.M. (Hi-Res Audio)
• Where We Started (Hi-Res Audio)
• Veruschka (Hi-Res Audio)
• Slow Train (Hi-Res Audio)
• Don’t Go (Hi-Res Audio)
• Kleptocracy (Hi-Res Audio)
• Aphrodite’s Favourite Child (Hi-Res Audio)
• Evolution Of Species (Hi-Res Audio)
• Healing (Hi-Res Audio)
• The Rock Drill (Hi-Res Audio)
• Silver Cloud (Hi-Res Audio)
• Tomorrow Is Today (Hi-Res Audio)

• Bauhaus Staircase (Video – First Draft)
• Veruschka (Video – In Colour)
• Look At You Now (Video – In Black & White)

So there’s seven viddys, an interview between Paul + Andy with Andy Whitehuerst, the creative director of their video directors, cine1080. The team who made the clips have eschewed AI and went about creating the clips via the painstaking, old fashioned way of grimly keyframed 3D animation instead. Honest, creative sweat! I feel better already.

We also get something that occasionally happens with bands who make video discs. Their video backdrops, enhanced this time with live recordings from Edinburgh, are included here for those that missed the action. Then there’s the album and B-sides in high-res audio; presumably 96/24, but that’s not been specified. Finally the package wraps up with an early draft of the title track viddy and two clips swapped for black + white and color where they didn’t previously have it. Who says you can’t have it all?

I’m somewhat flabbergasted that in this vintage media era there is our choice of Blu-Ray or DVD; each with the exact same content, if not visual resolution. Personally, I think they should have also opted for Japanese Laserdisc [with obi] and, why not, VHS of the material! Since the package is in a 32 page mediabook, those who pre-order early enough will have the option of a tipped in bookplate signed by Paul Humphreys and Andy McCluskey. Nice.

And what’s it all cost? Not terribly brutal with the DVD at $39.00 and the Blu-Ray at $45.00. We’ll take delivery in May of 2025, and since I’m sitting out the US tour this time, I may opt for the Blu-Ray. After all, I have every other OMD viddy, and this is reputed to be their final hurrah [though I’ll believe that when I see it].

Leave it to OMD to sit out the mad rush to have Steven Wilson reassemble their good works in 5.1 or Dolby Atmos® and to take the artistic high road instead. I’m still awaiting delivery of the three formats of the last single from “Bauhaus Staircase,” but I should think about ordering this sooner than later as I wouldn’t look askance at yet more OMD autographs in the Record Cell. DJs, hit those buttons!

BLU-RAY

DVD

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Posted in Core Collection, DVD, Want List | Tagged 2025, BAuhaus Staircase, Blu-Ray, DVD, OMD | 7 Comments

Simple Minds Dip Into The Surround Sound Well A Second Time With Twin Blu-Rays In Dolby Atmos®

Posted on November 21, 2024 by postpunkmonk

Super Deluxe Edition | UK | Blu-Ray Audio | 2025 | SDE#32, SDE#33

Of course commenter negative1ne has already acted swiftly on the comment thread of a post I made to commemorate “New God Dream [81, 82, 83, 84]” but I was away on travel for a memorial last weekend when I got the email from the best brains at Super Deluxe Edition. Their Blu-Ray audio series in surround sound and high-res formats is moving toward an impressive forty discs released since their inauguration just two years ago with the new Tears For Tears album in Dolby Atmos®. At least a third of the releases are albums I can get behind, and up until right now, I’ve actually bought three of their releases: xPropaganda – “The Heart is Strange,” ABC★★★ – “The Lexicon Of Love,” and most recently, Ultravox – “Lament.” The latter with Steven Wilson’s Dolby Atmos® remixes apart from the 5.1 in the “Lament” ultrabox DVD-A.

That was the first time that I found myself with two different surround sound remixed copies of an iconic album form my core collection, but now there’s more. Right up there with Ultravox in my core collection pantheon are Simple Minds. The fact that the group are still active means a lot to me, and stokes my flames of fandom righteously. And even though I have the 2005 DVD-A of the “New Gold Dream [81, 82, 83, 84]” album as remixed by Ronald Prent…as well as the “Sparkle In The Rain” ultrabox which featured a DVD-A as remixed by Steven Wilson in 5.1. There’s a new pair of discs in town that asks us to plunk down the dinero yet one more time.

This time the hand on the boards is the legendary Bob Clearmountain. I have enjoyed his work since encountering it in the late 70s and while I can debate the artistry of some of his projects, there is one indisputable fact; the man has golden ears. To that end he is taking on the multitrack masters to the top selling jewels in the first, imperial period of Simple Minds. He’s buffed the work of the band to a high gloss before [“Once Upon A Time,” “Black + White 050505,” “Graffiti Soul”] and this time he’s giving surround mixes a try. I’ve not heard his work in multi-channel before, but there’s always the first time! Here’s the goods.

NEW GOLD DREAM [81, 82, 83, 84]

Super Deluxe Edition | UK | Blu-Ray | 2025 | SDE #32

Simple Minds: New Gold Dream [81-82-83-84] – UK – Blu-Ray [2025]

Someone Somewhere in Summertime 4:36
Colours Fly and Catherine Wheel 3:49
Promised You a Miracle 4:28
Big Sleep 5:00
Somebody Up There Likes You 5:02
New Gold Dream (81–82–83–84) 5.39
Glittering Prize 4.33
Hunter and the Hunted 5.55
King is White and in the Crowd 7.00

Ronald Prent & Charlie Burchill 2005 5.1 Mix (96/24)

Someone Somewhere in Summertime 5:22
Colours Fly and Catherine Wheel 3:49 [stereo]
Promised You a Miracle 4:28 [stereo]
Big Sleep 5:27
Somebody Up There Likes You 5:45
New Gold Dream (81–82–83–84) 6:08
Glittering Prize 4:40
Hunter and the Hunted 6:09
King is White and in the Crowd 7:31
In Every Heaven 4:46

So, yow! There are six different mixes of the album here. Crucially, the multitrack masters that were missing for two songs [“Colours Fly = Catherine Wheel, “Pomised You A Miracle”] for the 2005 DVD-A DTS 5.1 remix were subsequently found for these latest Bob Clearmountain mixes. So if you never got that 2005 DVD-A, the goods are contained within. For many, that would have been reason enough to buy this on the face of it. Interestingly enough, that version of the album used longer or in the case of “King Is White + In The Crowd,” a completely different takes to those used on the LP in 1982. Making it an alternate version beyond the number of channel streams.

The resolution of some of the new Clearmountain mixes are at 48/24 instead of 96/24 so I wonder if that’s down to room on the Blu-Ray or mixer preference? Because the instrumental version of the album that Clearmountain mixed was definitely 96/24 while everything else he did was half that at 48/24. Ultimately, I’m not too concerned about this because my aged ears are in noticeable decline.

SPARKLE IN THE RAIN

Simple Minds: Sparkle In The Rain – UK – Blu-Ray [2025]

Bob Clearmountain 2024 Dolby Atmos Mix (48/24)
Bob Clearmountain 2024 5.1 Mix (48/24)
Bob Clearmountain 2024 Stereo Mix (48/24)
Bob Clearmountain 2024 Instrumental Mix (96/24)
Steven Wilson 2014 5.1 Mix (96/24)
Steven Wilson 2014 Stereo Mix (96/24)
Steven Wilson 2014 Instrumental Mix (96/24)
Original 1984 Stereo Mix (48/24)

Up On the Catwalk
Book Of Brilliant Things
Speed Your Love to Me
Waterfront
East At Easter
Street Hassle
White Hot Day
“C” Moon Cry Like a Baby
The Kick Inside of Me
Shake Off the Ghosts

As if to say, “HAH,” this disc features an abundant eight different mixes of “Sparkle In The Rain!” Four by Bob Clearmountain, and three by Steve n Wilson, in addition to the original 1984 stereo mix. This is somewhat astonishing to me because the 2016 boxed set DVD-A of this album did not contain the Steven Wilson 2.0 remix or the instrumental version of the album. They make their debut here. As with the “New Gold Dream [81, 82, 83, 84]” disc, only the Clearmountain instrumental mix in in 96/24. As were all of the Wilson mixes. Leaving the Atmos®, 5.1, and 2.0 mixes in 48/24. Curiouser and curiouser.

As always, the window of opportunity on these discs are highly limited. If you want either of these, buy or die! You won’t want to pay aftermarket prices in the near future, but the costs are sensible from our friends at SDE.com if you can act decisively. Each of these discs have a £25.00 presale cost with a bundle of both at a discount of £47.00 for the pair. Pre-order closes on December 2, 2024 with a release date of February 7, 2025. Even though I already have these albums in a surround mix, I’m game to take another pass at each of these! And it’s been proven that you can’t own too many copies of “New Gold Dream [81, 82, 83, 84],” in any case! [n.b. this will be my 8th copy…]

It’s also delightful that I can finally hear “Colours Fly + Catherine Wheel” and “Promised You A Miracle” in surround! As an afterthought, ans who balked at the recent reissue of the “Sparkle In The Rain” boxed set from 2016 as a 4xCD clamshell box minus the DVD-A can purchase this as well to slake their thirst. DJs hit that button!

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Posted in 5.1, Assorted Images, Core Collection, New Romantic, Scots Rock, Wilson Never Sleeps | Tagged 2025, Blu-Ray, New Gold Dream, SDE, Simple Minds, Sparkle In The Rain, surround sound | 14 Comments

24 Hours and £673 Left In Countess Of Fife Kickstarter Nail-Biter

Posted on November 20, 2024 by postpunkmonk

Fay Fife is pledging a free show for pledgers if they hit their target goal

We were out of town for a long weekend, to honor an important friend and now we’re back…back…back! There are any number of bright shiny topics to attract our attention, but first and foremost of these is the last 24 hours of the Kickstarter campaign for the second album by the Countess Of Fife. When we last posted, at the start of the campaign, the target was £10,500 for recording expenses. Which was particularly needed with the decline in arts funding in Scotland since the first album a few years back.

I was away much of the last week and now see that the tally is tantalizingly close for the end goal with the current pledge total sitting at £9,827! Leaving just £673 to raise in the next 24 hours! C’mon people! I’ve seen these crowdsource campaigns for years now. There’s three types:

Rabbit – The goal is met ridiculously fast…within hours/days
Turtle – Slow and steady eventually crosses the finish line…usually in the last hours of the window of opportunity!
Roadkill – It never achieves the finish! This is thankfully rare in my experience. Only one in over a decade of participating in these campaigns.

It looks like this one is trending towards Turtle. Full of drama, but by miles better than Roadkill status. And to sweeten the pot, Countess Of Fife have made their own pledge: Everyone who pledged at least £10.00, which is to say everyone who pledged, will qualify for a concert/party [obviously in Scotland] as a thank you for all pledgers.

When and where are yet to be determined but it’s likely to be in the Countess’ home turf of Edinburgh. We’ve already pledged for a CD and I’m hopeful that the target will get hit and the amount will be deducted from my account! But if we lived in Edinburgh, that £550.00 home concert might have happened. We don’t necessarily need any high rollers, but if you’ve been on the fence for a modest amount, it’s only £673.00 hanging in the void between nothing and album number two from the passion project of the ever lovin’ Ms. Fay Fife. DJs…hit that button!

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Posted in Core Collection, Scots Rock | Tagged 2024, crowdsourcing, The Countess of Fife | 2 Comments

First The Skids, Now Armory Show, Get Reformation Attention From Richard Jobson

Posted on November 13, 2024 by postpunkmonk

armory show poster june 2023 — Richard Jobson…looking all *flinty* but promising a “cracking good band!”

It was only a couple of months ago when we had a copy of the new Skids album delivered unto us and found that singer Richard Jobson was very capable of building up an entirely new band lineup that more than passed muster in comparison with the pulse-pounding Post-Punk act of…45 years earlier. Against all odds, Jobson had managed to very credibly pick up where the band had left off in spite of their iconic guitarist Stuart Adamson no longer walking this earth.

Now we see that the follow up group that Jobson had formed in the aftermath of the Skids with an even more iconic [to me, at least] Scot guitar wonder, John McGeoch, [who also hasn’t walked on this earth for many year now] is having a new album ready for early 2025. The band was The Armoury Show, but now that they’ve been rebuilt with an all new engine and chassis, Jobson has opted to change the spelling to Armory Show. He claims that it was his intention all along but was outvoted in the 1980s band for the earlier spelling.

Like with Skids, this will be a case of Jobson building an entirely new band t0 carry on the mission of the group. Armory Show were actually resurrected as a live act in 2019 with Jobson filling the group’s slots with guitars by Rory Cowieson and Nick Young from the Dumferline band Domiciles. The rhythm section for those shows was Nick Hernandez and Gil Allan, who went on to become the new engine room for Skids as well.

Since data is so thin on the ground at this time, we can only assume that the album lineup from those 2019 live shows have the same musicians in place in Armory Show as well. As with the last Skids album, Last Night From Glasgow [who else?] will be releasing the new Armory Show album in early 2025. It’s called “Dead Souls” and all we really know about it right now is that it looks like this.

Armory Show: Dead Souls – UK – CD [2025]

No song titles have been released yet, but the album will be ready to rock in “early 2025.” Last Night From Glasgow have the usual complement of formats for anyone maintaining an interest.

DL – $14.00
CD – $19.00
Red vinyl LP [only with LNFG membership + six more albums] – $107.00
Wedgewood Blue vinyl LP – $35.00
Alabaster vinyl LP – $35.00

Given that Jobson has already pulled a rabbit out of a hat once, I have confidence that he can make a new Armory Show album that won’t disappoint. We can pre-order the new album currently, amd I look forward to hearing more about it soon. If you’re of a pre-order predisposition, then DJ hit that button! In the interim, both Skids and Armory Show will be figuring in what sounds like a fantastic event for fans of both bands.

SKIDS WEEKENDER IN PORTMEIRION

Of course Jobson’s a Prisoner fan, wouldn’t you know!

Jobson is convening both Skids and Armory Show at the Skids Weekender to be held in Portmeirion, Wales on February 21st through the 23rd of 2025. Armory Show will play on Friday night with Skids live and electric on Saturday night. Sunday Skids will have an acoustic session with deep cuts unearthed and an audience Q+A. There will be open meet and greets with no borders for all in attendance. And every ticket buyer gets an exclusive T-shirt. It all sounds like a big treat for fans of Jobson’s brand of anthemic rock. And tickets are a modest £125 for all three days. As if a visit to Portmeirion wasn’t in itself reason enough to go! If you’re anywhere near Wales and a Jobson fan then DJ hit that button!

Posted in Scots Rock, Tourdates, Want List | Tagged 2025, Armoury Show, Richard Jobson, The Skids | 5 Comments

New Wave Newsflash: Most Mysterious Song On Internet Identified!

Posted on November 12, 2024 by postpunkmonk

new wave outpost Mysterious Song — It was at this website where I first ran across “The Most Mysterious Song On The Internet”

Wow. I got an email from synth player Logan Sky last weekend with weirdly stupendous news. Apparently the Most Mysterious Song On The Internet™ had finally been identified…after a stately seventeen year timespan! It was March 18, 2007 when a poster identifying as “Anton” posted to a German 80s music site with a mysterious one minute MP3 snippet of a song that they were at odds to identify. Then the internet sat back while the wheels of investigation slowly turned.

I first probably heard of this as much as five years later, Probably on the “Help Me Identify This” section of the New Wave Outpost Forum. I think that by that time the snippet of the song was embedded in a YouTube video. I don’t recall downloading a file in MP3 format. I listened to the song and it seemed like a German band, probably who had slipped between the cracks of a music career. Hence the long-standing mystery of it all. Had it been a song in any sort of record release, it would have been discovered much more swiftly. The song itself, was nothing to write home about. It had that West German, Post-Depeche Mode vibe to it. Sort of like the band Camouflage albeit less moody.

Soon afterward I thought to myself, that this was exactly the sort of material on the many “minimal synth” compilations that cite the magazine Flexipop yet having nothing to do with that magazine. They are filled to the brim with obscure, wannabe New Wave Synthpop of various stripes. But the thought of listening to the hundreds of such songs on those compilations just to find out what this might have been… did not strike me as a good return on investment for the time needed. So I let it slide and let the Most Mysterious Song On The Internet recede from my consciousness. Had it been as fascinating as a lost Associates trick would have been to me, I might have joined into the search.

But the mystery plugged along for many years. The original poster had received the tape, recorded from a West German radio station playing songs while their younger brother was taping songs form the airwaves. But alas, he had edited out the DJ announcing things so that’s why the song was such a mystery. In 2019 the song finally crested on the shores of Reddit with a newfound fervor. In July of 2019, Justin Whang posted a video on his YouTube channel that heated up the mystery more than a few a few notches. The search was becoming wider, yet still nothing was pinned down.

Eventually the song had its own Wikipedia page and got coverage in Rolling Stone magazine. The thought that anything on the internet could be unknown for over a decade is a pretty big pill to swallow. From the original poster to a dozen years later, hundreds [if not thousands] of minds were trying to crack this case.

Things got heated earlier this summer when someone was re4searching a new music festival in West Germany in the 80s called Hörfest. Radio station NDR [NordesdeutscherRundfunk] was having festivals of unsigned bands whose efforts were being broadcast as a pert of the proceedings. Leading to unsigned music being widely diffused on FM broadcast, perhaps only once. But the song had been duly recorded that single time and that was all that it took to let it seep into a larger world than anyone could have imagined in 1984.

In a ironic turn of events, NDR began releasing compilation LPs of the Hörfest bands in much the same way that many radio stations used to release compilations of unsigned bands. I’m sure we can all remember radio stations doing this in the 70s and 80s. The kicker here was the the effort came one year too late to perhaps shed any light on the Mystery Song from the year prior.

It finally split wide open last week when a a Reddit member researching Hörfest saw the story below. The group FEX were part of the 1984 Hörfest lineup, but the Reddit member [marjin1412] recognized one the people below as being part of a different band [Phret] who had played at Hörfest the year prior. Moreover, they knew how to contact Michael Hädrich and get the FEX story straight from the horse’s mouth. Hädrich confirmed that the band FEX [great name, by the way…] had been involved and he sent the Reddit member some recordings from the days of FEX and Phret and they finally heard the Mystery Song, which was actually called “Subways Of Your Mind.”

Hädrich, asked the Reddit member to hold their fire until they could contact the others who had been in FEX first. Since none of them had a clue that their old song had been the subject of intense search and scrutiny across the whole of the internet for seventeen years! When the musicians were all ready to meet the world, the story cracked wide open just eight days ago.

So now FEX will be earning those 15 minutes of fame [perhaps even more] now that they are 40 years older and wiser. They reunited to play the “song”Subways Of Your Mind” on German radio station NDR 1 Welle Nord. There’s now a whole genre [“Lostwave”] of unidentified songs on the basis of the notoriety that this song engendered in the 17 year span of the mystery. And can a Netflix documentary be far behind?

It gets more interesting now that I can talk about an intriguing different mystery song which was sent to me during the aftermath of Hurricane Helene last month. A reader contacted me using the form on this site about a “mystery earworm” they needed help with and I warned him that if it was the famous “Most Mysterious Song On The Internet” I’d be of no help. He had not heard of this mystery, but instead sent me the following recording he made on piano of his memory of the melody. It doesn’t ring any bells with me, but maybe it’s time for a new Mystery Song to sweep through the internet.

Another Mystery Song…this time replicated on piano

The gent who posted this to me describes it thusly:

“I’ve recorded it using a standard keyboard but the actual sound would have been much more moody, smoother, synthy-er with a male voice singer singing in quite a low pitch. Imagine early Gary Numan, Ultravox, Kraftwerk etc.
New Mystery Song

Have a listen and if anyone has come clues, then kindly post them to the comments.

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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 2024, Lostwave | 4 Comments

Post-Punk Monk

Fluid Japan Explore A Wide Spectrum Of What “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” Has To Offer On New EP

Darkwave Duo Les Longs Adieux Now A Trio On Latest Single “La Luna.”

OMD Announce A Very Different Kind Of Blu-Ray

Simple Minds Dip Into The Surround Sound Well A Second Time With Twin Blu-Rays In Dolby Atmos®

24 Hours and £673 Left In Countess Of Fife Kickstarter Nail-Biter

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