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Superstar DJs Armand Van Helden and A-Trak make cheeky, feelgood disco-house as Duck Sauce. The duo scored a worldwide hit with the impossibly infectious, Boney M.-sampling party anthem "Barbra Streisand" in 2010, then released their full-length debut, Quack, in 2014. After several years of downtime, Duck Sauce returned in 2020. They made several festival appearances, performing in front of a giant inflatable duck, and released a string of singles, including 2023's "LALALA."

Armand Van Helden is one of the most successful artists on the commercial dance scene, having released eight 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 for their 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. Aided by a cameo-heavy video shot in New York City, it became a viral hit and went on to reach number three in the U.K. at the end of 2010.

In 2011 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. Music premiered on the duo's Essential Mix for BBC Radio 1 was released as 2013's Duck Tape and the early 2014 EP Duck Droppings. 2014 also saw the release of their debut album, Quack, which reached the Top Ten of Billboard's Dance/Electronic Albums chart.

Duck Sauce went on hiatus after the album came out, but A-Trak teased a comeback through social media at the beginning of 2020. The gleeful-as-ever "Smiley Face" appeared the following month, followed by other singles such as the Captain Sensible-sampling "Captain Duck" and "Ask Me." "Put the Sauce on It" appeared in 2022, and the duo performed at the Coachella and Movement Festivals. "LALALA" arrived in 2023. ~ Jon O'Brien & Paul Simpson

Canadian producer and DJ A-Trak has traveled all over the world, performing at DJ competitions, clubs, and music festivals in countries including Australia, Japan, South Africa, and Norway, all before the tender age of 18. He was the youngest DJ ever to win a DJ-battling world championship (at 15), the first to win all three major championships -- International Turntablist Federation (ITF), Disco Mix Club (DMC), and Vestax World Extravaganza, and the first to win five world championship competitions -- all before 18. The turntablist wunderkind made himself a pioneer in this subculture of hip-hop within just a few years. As if the tide couldn't turn more in his favor, Kanye West picked him up to be his personal touring DJ in the early 2000s (which led to his involvement on West's Late Registration). During that era, his featured interviews in hip-hop magazines and on MTV brought this almost-lost art form much-needed mainstream exposure. Into the 2010s, he worked with artists across the genre spectrum, founded the Fool's Gold label, and teamed with Armand Van Helden as the Grammy-nominated Duck Sauce. Singles, EPs, and collaborations continued into the 2020s, during which time he formed the Brothers Macklovitch duo with his big brother Dave 1. He also released albums with Cam'ron (U Wasn't There) and Ric Wilson and Chromeo (Clusterfunk).

Born in Montreal, Canada, Alain Macklovitch first attempted to scratch vinyl when he was 13, on his father's old record player. Soon after, he bought more professional DJ equipment and began teaching himself how to scratch. In 1995, he helped form the Montreal rap group Obscure Disorder with his older brother David Macklovitch, aka Dave 1 (who also formed the synth pop revivalist duo Chromeo in 2003), and their after-school friends. Dave One and A-Trak established their own label, Audio Research, and they released Obscure Disorder's first single, "Lyrically Exposed," through Fat Beats Records in 1997. The record helped reveal Canadian hip-hop to the burgeoning U.S. independent scene. That same year, A-Trak started his now legendary DJ battling career, beginning with his victory at the DMC World Championship in Italy and moving on to capturing the crowns at the ITF, Vestax World, and DMC Team World Championships in 1999 and 2000. Although DJ Q-Bert invited him to be an honorary member of the Invisbl Skratch Piklz after his first world competition, A-Trak had an affinity for DJ Craze, who beat him in the 1998 DMC World Championship. Thus, together they founded their own DJ collective, the Allies, in 1999.

In 2000, at the age of 18, A-Trak retired from the battling scene in order to pursue his own musical endeavors and focus more on the Audio Research label with his brother. He had a host of side projects here and there, including working with artists like underground crew Non Phixion and Stones Throw Records label head Peanut Butter Wolf, but he also put out Allies-related records like 2004's Monkeyboy Breaks, a vital and popular 12" LP for DJs to use for battling. The turning point in his career came in May 2004 when he was performing in a London record store where Kanye West happened to witness his crafty handiwork. An impressed West made him DJ of his North American tour, which eventually extended into Europe and Asia. Aside from being West's touring DJ, A-Trak was enlisted to do turntablist cuts on some of West's G.O.O.D. Music projects, including the highly acclaimed LPs Be (Common) and Late Registration (West). Making big moves for himself, he gathered bits and pieces of video footage from his old battling days and up-and-coming career and composed the autobiographical DVD Sunglasses Is a Must. It was released in March 2006 in anticipation of delivering a solo album in the near future.

A-Trak got back to music the following year, combining Southern rap and dance music on the genre-bending remix album Dirty South Dance, as well as producing tracks for rapper Kid Sister. In 2008, the DJ was commissioned by Nike to bring his production skills to bear on a mix for their Nike+ mixtape series (with previous entries including LCD Soundsystem's 45:33), releasing the album Running Man to coincide with the company's Human Race running event that year. The year 2009 would prove to be prodigious for A-Trak, who not only released his own entry in the Fabriclive series, Fabriclive.45, but also teamed up with American producer Armand Van Helden to form the disco house duo Duck Sauce, who found massive worldwide success with their Grammy-nominated single "Barbra Streisand." Meanwhile, his remix of Yeah Yeah Yeahs' "Heads Will Roll" became one of his most enduring mainstream moments. A-Trak continued to find steady work doing additional remixes, reworking tracks by artists like MSTRKRFT, Justice, and the Rapture, as well as dropping in to make appearances on albums by Drake and Kid Cudi.

Duck Sauce joined the legendary and revived Casablanca label with their 2013 EP Radio Stereo, and in 2014 he joined Dipset rapper Cam'ron for the EP Federal Reserve. The next year, in addition to working with Disclosure and ZHU, A-Trak issued the Push EP -- which featured remixes by the Chainsmokers, Cazzette, and others -- and the We All Fall Down EP, which featured the title track with Jamie Lidell on vocals. 2016's featured single/remix collections included his collaboration with Phantogram, "Parallel Lines," and the Tommy Trash track "Lose My Mind." Boarding the trap train in 2017, A-Trak recruited Quavo and Lil Yachty for his single "Believe," and in 2018 he dropped "Ride for Me," which featured Young Thug and 24hrs. Another single, "Work It Out," followed in 2019.

Starting a new decade, he continued to work with Duck Sauce and formed a new creative partnership with older brother Dave 1 as the Brothers Macklovitch (issuing singles "Give Love to Get Some" and "I Can Call You"). In 2021, he released a trio of EPs divided by style: House Crate, Rap Crate, and Bangers Crate. The following year, he issued the EPs 10 Seconds, Vol. 1 and 2. Additionally, Duck Sauce released Put the Sauce on It, and A-Trak collaborated with Cam'ron for the album U Wasn't There. Clusterfunk, a collaboration with Chromeo and Ric Wilson, was released in 2023. ~ Cyril Cordor

Until he began branching out in 1996 with a barrage of album productions and remix classics (several of which were heard by more people than the originals), Armand Van Helden was one of the best-kept secrets in house music, recording for such labels as Strictly Rhythm, Henry St., and Logic. Afterwards, he became one of the top names in dance music altogether. As one in the steady progression of top in-house producers for Strictly Rhythm during the early '90s, Van Helden joined such names as Todd Terry, Erick Morillo, Roger Sanchez, Masters at Work, and George Morel to record scores of club hits. By the late '90s, a clutch of crucial remixes and several albums made Van Helden's name as one of the most popular producers around. His fame continued well into the 21st century, thanks to successful collaborations with Dizzee Rascal, Steve Aoki, and especially A-Trak, with whom he formed the chart-topping duo Duck Sauce in 2009.

Van Helden spent time in Holland, Turkey, and Italy while growing up the son of an Air Force man, and listened to music from an early age. He bought a drum machine at the age of 13 and began DJ'ing two years later, mostly hip-hop and freestyle. Based in Boston while attending college, Van Helden proceeded to moonlight as a DJ; though he settled into a legal-review job after graduation, he quit in 1991 to begin working on production for the remix service X-Mix Productions (founded by his future manager, Neil Petricone). Van Helden also owned a residency at Boston's Loft, and soon made it into one of the most popular nightclubs in the city. After playing one of his production demos for the dance A&R guru Gladys Pizarro in 1992, Van Helden released his proper debut single, Deep Creed's "Stay on My Mind," for Nervous Records.

Later that year, Van Helden released "Move It to the Left" by Sultans of Swing, his first single for the premiere American dance label Strictly Rhythm. Though a moderate club hit, the single was eclipsed by another Strictly Rhythm offering, 1994's "Witch Doktor." It became a dancefloor hit around the world and introduced him to a larger club audience. Although he had remixed Deee-Lite, Jimmy Somerville, New Order, Deep Forest, and Faithless, a reworked version of Tori Amos' "Professional Widow" hit the clubs with the same impact as his "Witchdoktor" single. During 1996-1997, Van Helden became the name for forward-thinking pop and dance artists to recruit for remix duty from the Rolling Stones, Janet Jackson, and Puff Daddy to Sneaker Pimps, C.J. Bolland, and Daft Punk. His own-name singles productions continued unabated, with hits like "Cha Cha" and "The Funk Phenomena," plus the release of his first album, Old School Junkies. Following a 1997 Greatest Hits retrospective, Van Helden returned to his old-school rap roots with the party breakbeat album, Sampleslayer...Enter the Meatmarket. The 2 Future 4 U album followed in 1998, spawning a U.K. number one single in "U Don't Know Me" (featuring Duane Harden) as well as the Top 20 follow-up "Flowerz."

In mid-2000, Van Helden returned with Killing Puritans, which contained the hit "Koochy," built around a sample of Gary Numan's iconic "Cars." Gandhi Khan followed in 2001, and New York: A Mix Odyssey appeared in 2004, containing hit collaborations with Spalding Rockwell ("Hear My Name") and Tara McDonald ("My My My"). Both of these songs also appeared on Van Helden's 2005 studio album Nympho, and "My My My" became a chart hit once again when it was re-released and remixed in 2006. Van Helden's Ghettoblaster album, influenced by freestyle and other '80s dance sounds, appeared in 2007. Retrospective You Don't Know Me: The Best of Armand Van Helden and New York: A Mix Odyssey, Pt. 2 both appeared in 2008.

In 2009, Van Helden collaborated with British rapper Dizzee Rascal for a fidget-house song called "Bonkers." The song hit number one in the U.K., and was a decent-sized hit elsewhere. Later in the year, he teamed up with Canadian DJ A-Trak under the name Duck Sauce, producing a track called "aNYway." It hit the charts in a few countries, but it was a moderate success compared to next year's "Barbra Streisand." Built around an infectious Boney M sample, the song hit number one in several countries, partially thanks to the viral popularity of its music video, which featured cameos by Pharrell Williams, Kanye West, André 3000, and numerous other famous musicians. A few other Duck Sauce singles followed during the next few years, leading up to full-length Quack, which finally arrived in 2014.

Van Helden continued to be an in-demand remixer, with stars such as Sam Smith, Madonna, and Disclosure among his clients. In 2015, he released a three-CD mix on Ministry of Sound titled Masterpiece, including one disc of early house tracks, one disc dedicated to yacht rock, and another consisting of '80s freestyle. Van Helden's recording career was given another retrospective in 2016, with Defected Presents House Masters. ~ John Bush & Paul Simpson