Duck Sauce

Responsible for the impossibly infectious Boney M.-sampling party anthem “Barbra Streisand,” Duck Sauce are the side project of Boston superstar DJ Armand Van Helden and Montreal turntablist A-Trak. Van Helden is one of the most successful artists on the commercial dance scene, having released six studio albums, a U.K. number one with “You Don’t Know Me,” and several iconic remixes including Tori Amos’ chart-topping “Professional Widow.” A-Trak, aka Alain Macklovitch, the younger brother of Chromeo’s Dave One and co-founder of Fool’s Gold Records) was Kanye West’s personal tour DJ, and has produced records for Kid Sister and Lupe Fiasco. Van Helden and A-Trak teamed up in New York in 2009 to create a dancefloor-friendly sound that incorporated filtered disco, old-skool hip-hop, funk, electro, and late-’90s French house, and often sampled ’70s artists such as debut single “Anyway,” which borrowed the melody from Final Edition’s “I Can Do It.” Following the release of their Greatest Hits EP, their second single, “Barbra Streisand,” which sampled Boney M.’s “Gotta Go Home,” became one of the biggest tracks at the Miami Winter Music Conference and went on to reach number three in the U.K. at the end of 2010. In 2012 they released the single “Big Bad Wolf,” which came with a video directed by Keith Schofield featuring the shocking introduction of something called “crotchfaces.” The video was nominated that year for an MTV Video Music Award. The group signed to the Fool's Gold label in 2013 and released the single “Radio Stereo,” while 2014 saw the release of their debut album Quack. ~ Jon O’Brien