Although the snooty house music fans declare it a garish glop of slick pop goo with maybe just one small drop of clever,
Duck Sauce (featuring superstar DJs
Armand Van Helden and
A-Trak banging the beats together) released a seriously subversive slab of music with their infectious,
Boney M.-sampling track "Barbara Streisand." Veteran DJ prankster
Green Velvet must have gone greener with envy once the Lima, Ohio kids on the network television show Glee performed the cut, as if "Pump Up the Volume" and "James Brown Is Dead"-styled numbers were perfect for show choir. In other words, it is best to come at the supergroup's debut album as tongue-in-cheek prime-time fluff that's only "deep" when it comes to "concept." Even then, the concept is merely to be deviant and delicious in equal measure, and on that front Quack wins, from its
Dazz Band-on-disco-steroids opener "Chariots of the Gods" to the
Anton LaVey-with-duck-bill artwork that graces the album's back cover. Throwing a duck bill on the greatest Satanist known to man is the kind of sharp and short humor that's found here, as skits and audio montages (house music segues into norteño music, and other nonsense) break up a solid set of slick bangers, including the infectious "Barbara Streisand" and its
Village People-ish follow-up, "Radio Stereo." Those familiar with the gold chains and goofball-filled albums of
Armand will find Quack's layout quite like his
Killing Puritans or
Nympho efforts, but
A-Trak is no silent partner, and it would be easy to chalk all the
Kavinsky-esque synth lines and stuttering electro up to him. Get hip or get irked because either reaction is worthy of this loud, smart-ass joke put on loop, but not since
Disco Tex unleashed his
Sex-O-Lettes has there been such a cheeky way to keep dancing. ~ David Jeffries