Alain Macklovitch (aka A-Trak) and Armand Van Helden come to the electronic music scene from two different perspectives.
Originally from Montreal, Macklovitch is a natural turntablist, in the spotlight since the age of 15 when he became the youngest ever DMC World Champion, and the first Canadian to take the crown. He continued to win other DJ competitions, developing a system for scratching notation in his spare time. By 2004, Kanye West had caught wind of his skills, and enlisted Macklovitch as his personal touring DJ. They performed alongside each other on the Grammys and several MTV programs, and in the studio for West’s Late Registration in 2005 and Graduation in 2007.
Comparatively, Boston producer Armand Van Helden was a late bloomer. He got a drum machine and started DJing in his mid-teens, but didn’t get a foothold in the industry until he started working as a remixer in his early 20s. His treatment of “Professional Widow” by Tori Amos went No. 1 in the U.S. Hot Dance and U.K. charts, earning him remix commissions for mainstream luminaries like The Rolling Stones, Janet Jackson, and Daft Punk. Under his own name, Van Helden’s first singles came out in the early 90s, and by the end of the decade he was making regular appearances on the charts.
Together, Macklovitch and Van Helden make Duck Sauce. The collaboration melds their distinct perspectives on the “beat” with their mutual embrace of life in New York City, executed with as much natural casualness as their friendship. Forming their musical partnership was not a calculated move. The two simply started hanging out on a regular basis, having met through A-Trak’s brother (and Chromeo guitarist) David Macklovitch. Bonding over the aesthetics of the infamous late-70s New York disco and hip-hop scenes, they thought it might be fun to work together. Fun remains the operative word. Even the name Duck Sauce was picked because it reminded them of Seinfeldesque jokes.
Given that they weren’t taking Duck Sauce too seriously, they were free to infuse a significant degree of levity into their material. Case in point, after putting out Greatest Hits as their debut EP, they made an upbeat, Boney M. sampling house track. It needed a vocal hook, and it so happened that the cadence of the name Barbra Streisand fit. Believing, rightly so, that people would get a kick out of those two words, the enduringly catchy “Barbra Streisand” skyrocketed to No. 1 in a half-dozen countries, earned platinum sales in four, snagged 2012 Juno and Grammy nominations for Best Dance Recording, and even received choreographic treatment on the TV show Glee.
The mirth continued with the “Big Bad Wolf” single, particularly with its video. Billboard called it “2011’s Most Disturbing Video” with good cause. Set to the repeating phrase “the big bad wolf” and a harder, more techno-oriented beat, the video takes a twist on the canonized Aphex Twin videos of the late 90s. Rather than superimposing the artists’ faces on creepy children and models, their heads replaced the intimate unmentionables of hairy gentlemen as they “head” out for a night on the town. The effect is equally shocking and hilarious. After all that, you can bet that the pressure for a Duck Sauce full-length album is as thick as... duck sauce (wah, wah).
LISTEN to Duck Sauce's Grammy-nominated track, "Barbara Streisand"