Hear Nile Rodgers, Carl Cox’s Dazzling New Song, ‘Beat the Track’
Disco pioneer Nile Rodgers and veteran English DJ Carl Cox combine wily guitar playing and bulldozing electronic music on their new collaboration, “Beat the Track.”
Unlike many of Rodgers’ most famous singles, he does not settle on a single, decisive guitar riff during “Beat the Track.” Instead, his contributions here feel loose and off-the-cuff, the result of a stream of spur-of-the-moment decisions. In contrast, Cox’s beats are stern and tightly wound, rising and falling in predictably forceful waves.
“The Nile Rodgers project has been something I kind of stumbled across with him two years ago … Nile Rodgers is an artist that I’ve been following since the Seventies,” Cox told Billboard. The two kept running into each other festivals, and eventually booked studio time together. “I took him to a real nice, out of the way studio – he was relaxed, comfortable,” Cox explained. “He was playing all these riffs, enjoying himself, sitting on the sofa playing guitar. We were recording it. And we managed to find this piece he was so happy with, and we turned that into this record.”
Rodgers finishes up a tour with his band Chic in London on Friday.