People keep asking me about a lostwave song they call “CIA.” I have no answers, but…

“Lostwave” is the generic terms for songs that no one can identify. The hunt for these tracks is so popular that I did an entire Ongoing History of New Music show on the phenomenon.

In late 2024, there was a breakthrough when the track dubbed “The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet” was finally identified after forty years. It was a German group called FEX with “Subways of Your Mind.”

But then there’s a track lostwave hunters called “CIA.” Because it sounds an awful lot like FEX and “Subways of Your Mind,” I assumed that it was the same song. There are, however, many who beg to differ.

Here’s “Subways of Your Mind.”

Now here’s “CIA,” or whatever it’s called.

A CBC story that appeared this week digs into the “CIA” mystery, which aficionados insist was played on CFNY/Toronto sometime in the 1980s, perhaps (like “Subways of Your Mind”) in 1984. I’ve looked into this, as have other CFNY alumni. No one has any idea or any recollection of this song. It’s nowhere in our libraries. We’ve exhausted all our searches.

But that doesn’t mean the search for the ultimate answer should stop. Just this week, I received an email from one Jonathan Jug who insists that the song was from “a bunch of kids from the Hood Morris Club.” Does this ring a bell with anyone?