Kpt.Michi.Gan

Germany's Kptmichigan (Michael Beckett) is an exploritory guitarist who chooses a variety of diverse musical ideas. Currently Michael is part of Schneider TM's live group (thye met in 1996 when Michael was touring with his band, Tuesday Weld, and Schneider was touring with his band, Hip Young Things) as well as the band Beautiful New Born Children. Together, he and Schneider TM released a record on City Slang that included a hit cover of The Smiths' 'There Is A Light That Never Goes Out,' which gained them international recognition.

Currently Michael is part of Schneider TM's live group (thye met in 1996 when Michael was touring with his band, Tuesday Weld, and Schneider was touring with his band, Hip Young Things) as well as the band Beautiful New Born Children.

Together, he and Schneider TM released a record on City Slang that included a hit cover of The Smiths' 'There Is A Light That Never Goes Out,' which gained them international recognition. For the record, that release was a collaboration, though press has seemed happy to date with only giving credit to TM.

Tuesday Weld eventually broke up, leaving Michael without a band and a bitterness towards rock music. He started messing around with a sampler and a groovebox. This eventually would lead to the creation of 'Hey Love,' his first record as Kptmichigan. This Kpt record is one of the most inspired by electronic music, which is ironic, as it was recorded entirely onto a 4-track.

As 2001 rolled around, Kpt was feeling bored of the clinical, hi-fi-ness of electronic music, which he states as having 'no sex and a major lack of attitude.' 'Player, Player,' his debuy Aesthetics release, was created with only a 400 mhz/64 mb PC along with some other gear. 'Player, Player' is loud, dirty (with hissing throughout) and sexy (the occurances of Jamican frequencies). Kpt describes it as 'my statement against the general poo that was going on around me.' It ends with a prophetic song about a man who was about to destroy the U.S. and the rest of the planet.

Over the years he has remixed tracks from Calexico, Tennix, Shinsei and Schneider TM, and has tracks on compilations on Mute, Kraak3 and Tigerbeat6.