Stop – Wake Up

"Wake Up" is potentially one of the most frightening productions ever captured in wax and to anonymously find its way into my vinyl collection.

Overly pleasant, infinitely catchy, robotically precise, and possessing an incessant "clap" track throughout, this instrumental track seems harmless enough on the surface, but it can quickly turn on the uninitiated.

I can envision its inhumane usage in MK Ultra experiments that would begin with a smile and toetap, inevitably devolving into horrified contortions and shrieks of terror.

I can also visualize finding myself at the center of an almost empty dance floor sometime after 1:30AM. A familar track transitions to a drumbreak, the bassline fades out as a methodically pulsating melody begins to take its place. So familiar...but what could it be? The beat kicks in and with it the dawning realization that "Wake Up" has arrived. Waves of panic become torrents. No time to react, the pavlovian clap track has already begun, triggering the stampede of insanely grinning Hi-NRG in shorts and track suits from all directions. There is no escape.

"Wake Up" should NEVER be combined with LSD or other potent hallucinogens.

It could be argued that Smart E's sadistic "Sesame's Treet" can be more horrifying, but its effect was probably intentional (rumoured to have been the cynical brainchild of a rogue psy-ops collective).

I highly doubt that there was any malicious intent behind "Wake Up." Be careful.

The original 1985 cover bore the notation "May the world Wake Up! Danny, Martin, Bijan" and oddly "includes the hit single Wake Up performed by Stop". Oddly redundant since three realisations of "Wake Up" make up the entirety of the single.

What message were they trying to commuicate?

Mysteriously, the 8:27 Martin Rodriguez Dub Version contained on the original release was quietly retracted without comment and did not appear on subsequent re-issues.