White Noise/Dial Up Audio Glitch Mysteriously

[crypticsound]

This post is about a peculiar event that happened to me. On the 9th of April 2016. It was original posted on Reddit as well as the ongoing investigation into the phenomenon. Please enjoy the story and comment with any questions. If anyone would like a copy of the wav file for analysis please inbox me your email. Kind Regards

Dennis Howard Marks (13 August 1945 – 10 April 2016) was a Welsh drug smuggler turned author, who achieved notoriety as an international cannabis smuggler through high-profile court cases. At his peak he was supposedly smuggling consignments of the drug as large as 30 tons, and was connected with groups as diverse as the CIA, the IRA, MI6, and the Mafia. He was eventually convicted by the American Drug Enforcement Administration and handed a 25-year sentence to be served at Terre Haute; he was released in April 1995 after serving seven years. Though he had up to 43 different aliases, he became known as "Mr Nice" after he bought a passport from convicted murderer Donald Nice. After his release from prison, he published a best-selling autobiography, Mr Nice, and campaigned publicly for changes in drugs legislation. (Taken from Wikipedia)

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October 2010, The Groucho Club, Dean St, London, 2.30am’ish…

As soon as we hit the room we cracked a bottle of champers, did 2 fat lines, built a huge spliff and collapsed onto the bed. After what felt like hours (but which was probably minutes), Howard turned to his bedside table, picked up a jam-jar, handed it to me and said - in his sing-song and oh-so-sexy Welsh accent - ‘can you look after this for the next couple of days as I have to travel abroad?’

I tried hard to focus on the jar, which proved difficult. It seemed to contain an assortment of dope - mainly Thai, skunk and hashish. It was a no-brainer really….but I had something up my sleeve that I wanted in return.

‘Okay’ I said (trying desperately to sound sober) ‘but how about recording a track with The Popes, the day of the Filthys gig…Paul has written a song for you with the most sublime vocals that you’re gonna love’. I paused momentarily to try and gauge a reaction and seeing none, ploughed on, ‘they have a studio in south London and I’ll deal with –

‘‘Okay’ he said simply, cutting me short.

And that is the beginning of this story….

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Friday 4 March 2011, St Pancras Station, 9.30am’ish.

I was freezing cold, a tad hung-over and had been traipsing round a super-shiny St Pancras station for 25 minutes trying to find the platform I was looking for. All I could think was ‘what would the, late great Douglas Adams make of this?’

I was meeting the world’s most famous (and most charming) drugs dealer, turned author/raconteur - who also happened to be my very good friend - to whisk him down to The Popes’ studio in Dulwich (way, way south London) to nail the recording we’d agreed 5 months earlier in The Groucho.

After initially finding myself hopelessly lost, by some weird quirk of fete I found myself at the required platform just before the passengers started tumbling off the train. Howard, was of course, one of the last to disembark, but his smile on seeing me lit up a very gloomy March morning.

First thing he did as soon as we were in the taxi queue (which was ridiculously long) was spark up. We got a few weird looks, but hey, didn’t these people know who he was? Well…probably not, but figured no-one was gonna arrest Howard Marks for smoking a spliff at St Pancras station - given he’d spent 7 years in Terra Haute – so I just went with the flow.

Fifteen minutes later we were safely ensconced in the back of a black cab. It’s apparently 9.4 miles to Dulwich from Islington - 47 minutes with no traffic. It took us an hour and three quarters and a fortune in dosh.

The studio went smoothly and the recording sounded as sublime as the lyrics. Howard (sounding more like Richard Burton in War of the Worlds than Richard Burton) had only one request…I keep a steady supply of spliffs coming his way, which wasn’t difficult.

By half two we were done, fairly stoned and in need of a drink. We climbed into a cab (which had been patiently waiting for the last 20 minutes) and sped north-bound. We did a quick stop over at The Groucho (for necessary supplies/a quick freshen up/powder the nose) and then back into the cab for our final destination.

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5 years later…

‘So what the hell is this crazy ****?’

We were sitting in my front room in Islington, surrounded by vinyls and cds and Gyles had just discovered Howards track on The Popes album.

‘Bruv, we gotta do something with this’ Gyles said looking straight at Anthony who was necking his fourth glass of Merlot, whilst reclining on my leather sofa.

‘Is that really Howard?’ said Anthony, suddenly sitting upright and sounding surprisingly lucid.

‘Yeah’ I countered, ‘that really is Howard and if you think you can put it to good use then knock yourselves out’.

‘Consider it done’ replied Gyles and Anthony in unison.

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3 months later - Gyles’ account…

On Saturday 9th April 2016, I visited my friend and frequent collaborator at his residence at Tower Bridge, Royal Mint Street. He had just returned from Prague. I was meeting him to discuss upcoming projects, and of course subject to our agreement…had brought along some super strong cheese.

When I got there, we rolled two fat joints and he played me some of his new tracks. The spliff was kicking in, but regaining some modicum of sensibility, I got round to the reason I was there.

I had on my laptop our recently mastered EP which featured ‘The Gambler’ starring Howard Marks - which I was finding hard to contain my excitement about.

I told him I wanted to transfer the song onto his computer (given his set up was second to none). He handed me a USB, I put the 4 tracks on the drive as a folder then handed the USB back to him. We listened to the first track ‘The Gambler’, but as the track got to 2 min 58 seconds a white noise interference followed by what sounded like a dial up sequence interrupted the playback.

We looked at each other with amazement and Jah said, ‘Howard just died’. It was around midnight.

After a moment of stunned silence, we decided to march on and listen to the remaining 3 tracks – which played out normally. Two days later, I found out that Howard had died in the early hours of Sunday morning.

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So, my question is, was it a coincidence, or was is it just a technical glitch or was there some sort of deeper meaning behind this?

I decided to do some investigating so what better place to ask than the Reddit community.

Below are links to the Reddit threads......

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnsolvedMysteries/comments/4f6zmz/this_audio_mysteriously_appeared_on_a_wav_during/

https://www.reddit.com/r/RBI/comments/4f81rn/this_audio_mysteriously_appeared_on_a_wav_during/

A lot of Redditors wanted to know the story behind this (given the surprising feedback), and wanted to the original file.

So here it is…

https://soundcloud.com/hittrun/the-gambler-starring-howard-marks-the-phantom-mix

[freetoroam]

did 2 fat lines,

smoking a spliff

we rolled two fat joints

Hi, I found this post very confusing, all I can really get is you are stoned a lot.

[crypticsound]

Hi, I found this post very confusing, all I can really get is you are stoned a lot.

Hi sorry is the post was confusing, its more of story (which is all true) if anything. What happened at the end of the story is what is the mystery.

[theotherguy]

Key part of the story is this bit.

I had on my laptop our recently mastered EP which featured ‘The Gambler’ starring Howard Marks - which I was finding hard to contain my excitement about.

I told him I wanted to transfer the song onto his computer (given his set up was second to none). He handed me a USB, I put the 4 tracks on the drive as a folder then handed the USB back to him. We listened to the first track ‘The Gambler’, but as the track got to 2 min 58 seconds a white noise interference followed by what sounded like a dial up sequence interrupted the playback.

We looked at each other with amazement and Jah said, ‘Howard just died’. It was around midnight.

After a moment of stunned silence, we decided to march on and listen to the remaining 3 tracks – which played out normally. Two days later, I found out that Howard had died in the early hours of Sunday morning.

*************************

So, my question is, was it a coincidence, or was is it just a technical glitch or was there some sort of deeper meaning behind this?

I decided to do some investigating so what better place to ask than the Reddit community.

Below are links to the Reddit threads......

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnsolvedMysteries/comments/4f6zmz/this_audio_mysteriously_appeared_on_a_wav_during/

https://www.reddit.com/r/RBI/comments/4f81rn/this_audio_mysteriously_appeared_on_a_wav_during/

A lot of Redditors wanted to know the story behind this (given the surprising feedback), and wanted to the original file.

So here it is…

https://soundcloud.com/hittrun/the-gambler-starring-howard-marks-the-phantom-mix

Basically, an audio file glitched at approximately the same time that its star died.

[theotherguy]

Anyway, welcome to the forums, crypticsound!

[crypticsound]

Anyway, welcome to the forums, crypticsound!

Thanks for the warm welcome and clearing that up. Would be interested to hear some thoughts on what this could be and if it has happened to anyone else before?

[toast]

Hi sorry is the post was confusing, its more of story (which is all true) if anything.

Again:

did 2 fat lines,

smoking a spliff

we rolled two fat joints

[crypticsound]

Again:

I was not present at part of the story so i can't confirm that. But i don't think that really matters, its just rock and roll i expect.

[ChrLzs]

Forgive me for not 'redditing' and perhaps not seeing what I am asking becasue of that.. but can you provide evidence (obituary notice etc..)?

Otherwise, well...what can we say but cool story bro. Would have to ask why you think the two things *should* be related, though?

[crypticsound]

Forgive me for not 'redditing' and perhaps not seeing what I am asking becasue of that.. but can you provide evidence (obituary notice etc..)?

Otherwise, well...what can we say but cool story bro. Would have to ask why you think the two things *should* be related, though?

We if you google the person in then you can see reports of their death, as for other evidence not sure what i can provide but the date modified details from the original file.

I'm not sure if I think the two things are or should be related, i'm just curious to hear what everyone here makes of it and if it has happened to anyone before?