Wildchild

Roger "Wildchild" McKenzie was the author of the big-beat club anthem "Renegade Master," which became a British hit upon its release in 1995 but gained considerably more worldwide exposure in 1998, more than two years after his untimely death. Based in Southampton before he moved to the future big-beat capital of Brighton around 1991, McKenzie worked as an underground house DJ and recorded four EPs for Loaded Records, each subtitled Wildtrax. Indebted to the sampladelic hip-house of Todd Terry, singles like "Bring It on Down" and "Jump to My Beat" were large club anthems presaging the rise of big-beat techno of the sort popularized several years later. McKenzie also formed his own label, Dark & Black, and recorded "Renegade Master" for Norman Cook's Hi-Life Records; a reissue of the single hit number 11 on the British charts in 1995. Wildchild had only recently switched bases to New York (with his manager and partner Donna Snell) later that year, when he died of a heart condition in November. Wildchild releases continued to flow nevertheless, with a remix of East 17's "Do U Still?" appearing one year later. Norman Cook himself remixed "Renegade Master" in 1997 (under his Fatboy Slim guise), and the track became a club hit once again. ~ John Bush, Rovi