Dr. Walker goes underground with ACID

Dr. Walker (Ingmar Koch) has been a huge influence on the underground scene in Europe, particularly Cologne, Germany. His fame comes from multiple directions: His career as a solo artist, as co-founder of the groups Air Liquide (which recently celebrated its 11th anniversary) and Rei$$dorf Force, as the main promoter of Cologne's Battery Park festival series, and as owner of the legendary Liquid Sky club and currently, Club Camouflage (as well as the Monte Christo artist hotel). He's "discovered" many acts, encouraged others, and forged partnerships with musicians like Holger Czukay (formerly of Can) and FM Einheit. He's even done remixes for artists as diverse as TOKTOK featuring Nena, Can, Eternal, and Public Enemy.

Over his career, Walker has produced more than 700 different records, CDs, and experimental movies, as well as written for magazines like Keyboards Recording & Computer (Germany) and EQ (United States). And he maintains a breakneck pace: He's working on a new album with Il Niño (keyboard player for Sisters of Mercy), the latest Air Liquide album, a release on the Djungle Fever label called Redlight District V ("constructed to destroy the dancefloor," says Walker), and a DVD "Acid Burned my TV Set," released on the Molecular Funkguerilla label, which consists of experimental acid movies in 5.1. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Walker's specialty is beats — anyone who doesn't start moving their bodies five minutes into a Walker live set or CD should probably check to make sure they still have a pulse. Able to move from heavy and hard to psychedelic and chilling, in the studio Walker relies on Sony ACID Pro software.

"I've been an ACID fan for four years," says Walker, "and yes, the main reason I wanted to check it out in the first place was the name." (Laughs) "Whenever it comes to advanced editing, wild cuts, and wicked drum edits, ACID is a great tool. It's easy to understand — I've never had to look at the manual or even the online help — and it's lightning fast. And what's really important is that it's fun to use."

Part of the reason for the freshness and immediacy of Walker's music is that he constantly seeks out equipment that provides the most direct link from inspiration to sounds blasting out of a speaker and shaking the dance floor. Walker has even used ACID live, doing on-the-fly loop wizardry with Rei$$dorf Force. But in the studio, ACID occupies a unique place.

"Normally I jam in the studio with my [hardware] instruments," Walker elaborates. "I just go wild on the gear, improvising and collecting sounds and beats. After getting all the 'raw materials' in place, I start to edit the recorded jam and morph it into a track with ACID. It's fun to add new instruments, be able to replace the kick drum easily, create wicked breaks, or simply add some background noises when the production sounds too clean and needs some underground hiss."

But that's not his only use of ACID. He's used it to create non-stop CD mixes, like a DJ mix but without record players. And like so many other ACID users, he's discovered the value of ACID for soundtracks, where it's easy to match tempo to picture, and compensate for edits. "Next month, I'll be working with ACID on my new movie soundtrack project. I think it's probably going to go a lot easier compared to other ways of working."

But even when he's doing soundtracks for the Discovery Channel, one thing's for certain: With Walker at the controls, it's going to sound like nothing you've heard before.

For more information, go to www.air-liquide.org, www.psychedelickitchen.org, www.303expo.com, www.djungle-fever.com, www.club-camouflage.com, and www.artisthotel-monte-christo.com. The www.dr-walker.com Web site is coming soon.