For multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, space-time bit-interleaved coded modulation (STBICM) using iterative detection has been recognized as a method to achieve near-capacity performance. However, the a posteriori probability (APP) detector required for this near-optimal performance exhibits prohibitive implementation complexity at high rates (≥16 coded bps/Hz) due to its exponential complexity in rate. With a view to enabling practical implementations of high spectral-efficiency wireless communications, this paper introduces a singlestream detection approach using spatial-filtering (or nulling) and soft-cancellation. Relative to the conventional APP detector, the proposed method is shown to have a superior performance-complexity trade. This paper also demonstrates the robustness of the proposed single-stream detection approach in overloaded conditions where there are fewer receive antenna elements devoted to signal separation than there are transmitted streams.