Double J Pick of the Week – Chic

Chic Ft. The Martinez Brothers
I'll Be There
(WMA)

It has been an enormous few years for Chic founder Nile Rodgers. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2011 and made it his duty to take his music to as many people as he could while he was able to. Now he is clear of cancer and, thanks to a couple of appearances on Daft Punk's acclaimed Random Access Memories, has found a whole new, younger audience.

This year he has resurrected the Chic name for his first new single in almost a quarter of a century, the polished disco of I'll Be There, with help from New York house duo The Martinez Brothers. It's not Rodgers' most exciting work, but it has all the elements we've come to love about Chic music, a strong female vocal, cheesy horn stabs and that brilliant, deeply rhythmic guitar playing from Rodgers himself. It's strange to hear Chic music without fellow founder Bernard Edwards (who died in 1996), but if it gets more people to discover the great work they've done in the past then that has to be a good thing.