Biography
Duck Sauce serves as the playful disco-house outlet for superstar DJs Armand Van Helden and A-Trak. The pair notched global success in 2010 through the irresistibly catchy, Boney M.-sampling party anthem “Barbra Streisand,” then delivered their first full-length album, Quack, in 2014. After an extended break the duo resurfaced in 2020, headlining festival stages in front of an enormous inflatable duck and rolling out further singles capped by 2023’s “LALALA.”
Armand Van Helden ranks among the most commercially potent figures in dance music, having issued eight studio albums, topped the U.K. chart with “You Don’t Know Me,” and supplied landmark remixes such as Tori Amos’ chart-topping “Professional Widow.” A-Trak, real name Alain Macklovitch and younger brother of Chromeo’s Dave One as well as co-founder of Fool’s Gold Records, once served as Kanye West’s personal tour DJ and has produced tracks for Kid Sister and Lupe Fiasco.
Van Helden and A-Trak first linked up in New York in 2009, forging a dancefloor-oriented style that fused filtered disco, old-school hip-hop, funk, electro, and late-’90s French house while regularly sampling 1970s artists. Their debut single, “aNYway,” drew its melody directly from Final Edition’s “I Can Do It.” Following the Greatest Hits EP, their next release, “Barbra Streisand,” which sampled Boney M.’s “Gotta Go Home,” dominated the Miami Winter Music Conference. A star-studded video filmed in New York City propelled the track to viral status, and it ultimately peaked at number three in the U.K. by the end of 2010.
In 2011 the duo issued “Big Bad Wolf,” whose Keith Schofield-directed clip introduced the jarring “crotchfaces” motif and earned an MTV Video Music Award nomination. Selections first aired on their BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix surfaced as 2013’s Duck Tape and the early 2014 EP Duck Droppings. Quack, their full-length debut, arrived that same year and entered the Top Ten of Billboard’s Dance/Electronic Albums chart.
Duck Sauce entered hiatus after the album, yet A-Trak signaled a return via social media at the start of 2020. The buoyant “Smiley Face” followed in February, succeeded by further singles including the Captain Sensible-sampling “Captain Duck” and “Ask Me.” “Put the Sauce on It” appeared in 2022 as the duo played Coachella and Movement Festivals, with “LALALA” arriving the next year.
Armand Van Helden ranks among the most commercially potent figures in dance music, having issued eight studio albums, topped the U.K. chart with “You Don’t Know Me,” and supplied landmark remixes such as Tori Amos’ chart-topping “Professional Widow.” A-Trak, real name Alain Macklovitch and younger brother of Chromeo’s Dave One as well as co-founder of Fool’s Gold Records, once served as Kanye West’s personal tour DJ and has produced tracks for Kid Sister and Lupe Fiasco.
Van Helden and A-Trak first linked up in New York in 2009, forging a dancefloor-oriented style that fused filtered disco, old-school hip-hop, funk, electro, and late-’90s French house while regularly sampling 1970s artists. Their debut single, “aNYway,” drew its melody directly from Final Edition’s “I Can Do It.” Following the Greatest Hits EP, their next release, “Barbra Streisand,” which sampled Boney M.’s “Gotta Go Home,” dominated the Miami Winter Music Conference. A star-studded video filmed in New York City propelled the track to viral status, and it ultimately peaked at number three in the U.K. by the end of 2010.
In 2011 the duo issued “Big Bad Wolf,” whose Keith Schofield-directed clip introduced the jarring “crotchfaces” motif and earned an MTV Video Music Award nomination. Selections first aired on their BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix surfaced as 2013’s Duck Tape and the early 2014 EP Duck Droppings. Quack, their full-length debut, arrived that same year and entered the Top Ten of Billboard’s Dance/Electronic Albums chart.
Duck Sauce entered hiatus after the album, yet A-Trak signaled a return via social media at the start of 2020. The buoyant “Smiley Face” followed in February, succeeded by further singles including the Captain Sensible-sampling “Captain Duck” and “Ask Me.” “Put the Sauce on It” appeared in 2022 as the duo played Coachella and Movement Festivals, with “LALALA” arriving the next year.
Albums
Singles
