'Hypnotic ST8' is a song by Stafford-based rave group
Altern8, one which reached number 16 in the UK singles charts on release in 1992. It was the last in a trilogy of top twenty hits and their penultimate single.
'St8' (and the chemical warfare outfits) is the song most people remember when they remember Altern8; a straightforward but effective mixture of hoover-noise rave stabs, a sampled diva wailing a single lyric repeatedly, and a bleepy ambient middle eight.
On a Channel 4 Without Walls special in 1992, craggy-faced non-musician Tony Parsons declared with regret that the kind of pop music he grew up with - and by inference all music - was being killed, and cited this song as one of the killers. This did nothing to stem the tide of dance music, however.
Lyrically, the song is of course extremely simple and utterly devoid of any meaning whatsoever; like most rave music it is cold and brutal and has no truck with feelings or emotions. The sentiments expressed in the verse could equally be about drugs, sex, insurance, theme parks or a multitude of commercial concerns; curiously, the song has not yet popped up in a television commercial.
'Hypnotic St8'
by
Altern8
-
Gonna take you higher and higher
Gonna take you higher and higher
Gonna take you higher and higher
Gonna take you higher and higher
Gonna take you higher and higher
Gonna take you higher and higher
Gonna take you higher and higher
Gonna take you higher and higher
Gonna take you higher and higher
Gonna take you higher and higher
Gonna take you higher and higher
Gonna take you higher and higher
ee-yeah, ee-yeah you
ee-yeah, ee-yeah you
ee-yeah, ee-yeah you
ee-yeah, ee-yeah you
Say yeah baby
Say yeah baby
Say yeah baby
Say yeah baby
Gonna take you higher and higher
Gonna take you higher and higher
Gonna take you higher and higher
Gonna take you higher and higher
Gonna take you higher and higher
Gonna take you higher and higher
Gonna take you higher and higher
Gonna take you higher and higher
ee-yeah, ee-yeah you
ee-yeah, ee-yeah you
ee-yeah, ee-yeah you
ee-yeah, ee-yeah you
Say yeah baby
Say yeah baby
Say yeah baby
Say yeah baby
ee-yeah you
Gonna take you higher and higher
Gonna take you higher and higher
Gonna take you higher and higher
Gonna take you higher and higher