Photo via Nile Rodgers' website

If you want to track the progress of Daft Punk's forever-anticipated new album, the person to consult is disco-funk icon Nile Rodgers. Rodgers, who's working closely with the French duo on their new album, writes in a new blog post (via NME): "The next time I set foot in Japan, my collaboration with Daft Punk would have started to hit people's eardrums." Rodgers spent some time in Japan in 2012, and sounds as though he's planning to return this year.

"No matter how it ends, 2013 won't be boring!", Rodgers says. (He leads the post with the above Photoshop of himself alongside Daft Punk.)

Still, it's unlikely you'll see Daft Punk live in 2013. Rob da Bank, organizer of huge British festival Bestival, says they're not planning to tour at all. "There's all kinds of crazy rumors flying about at the moment about Daft Punk at Coachella, and the Rolling Stones playing Glastonbury. We got told months ago that Daft Punk were definitely not touring next year, but it keeps the rumor miss going."

Here's the video for "Harder Better Faster Stronger":