Who was Patrick Keel?: the forgotten pioneer behind the LCD Soundsystem sound
Plagiarism is a big word, particularly within the creative industry. For an artist spending months crafting a particular sound, song, or artwork to be told that it has been stolen from some forgotten source is a thing of nightmare. Still, the pages of musical history are chock full of forgotten pioneers whose groundbreaking work went on to be stolen, borrowed, or appropriated by a wealth of other artists, who usually ended up becoming much more successful. Synthesiser pioneer Patrick Keel is one such figure.
Synthesisers have existed, in one form or another, since the early 20th century, but it was during the mid-1970s that Moog synthesisers became much more portable, cheap, and therefore accessible to budding young artists. This revolutionary instrument paved the way for countless now-iconic artists, from Nigerian synth-master William Onyeabor to the synthpop stylings of Depeche Mode. The synthesiser was also ripe for experimentation, which is exactly what Texan artist Patrick Keel sought to do.
Cutting his teeth as a drummer with various long-forgotten groups in Austin, Texas, throughout the 1970s, Keel turned his attention to the blossoming world of synth music during the turn of the decade, forming the one-man outfit The Pool in the early 1980s. Experimenting with a wide range of different sounds and genre conventions, Keel began to self-release cassette tapes in 1980, chronicling this profound synth experimentation.
Despite being self-released, these obscure cassette tapes found a cult audience in lands far away from his hometown of Austin. Before too long, those in the know were all too aware of Keel’s work, and in 1984, he released a full album, 333, via Canada’s Enigma Records. This album release added to the mystique surrounding the one-man band and added to Keel’s ever-growing audience within the musical underground.
Keel had gained some notoriety among fellow synth circles and in Austin’s underground music scene, but his experimentation was never going to top the singles chart. 333 was The Pool’s only full-length release, and although Keel continued to work as a producer and percussionist into the early 1990s, he remained an obscure cult figure for the rest of his life. However, his music acted as a consistent source of inspiration for more mainstream artists.
On his second self-released tape, 1981’s Pool 2, the synth obsessive unveiled the track ‘Jamaica Resting’, an otherworldly dance tune that drew upon everything from dub to ambient music. Of course, not much fuss was made about the song upon its release, and even when it was included in more widespread Pool releases in subsequent years, it was largely ignored by the musical masses.
You have probably never heard of ‘Jamaica Resting’, but you are almost certainly familiar with its sound. In 2010, James Murphy and LCD Soundsystem unveiled the track ‘Dance Yrself Clean’, which perfectly captured the inherent sound and atmosphere fostered by the group. The song does, however, bear an undeniable resemblance to ‘Jamaica Resting’, to the point where it is difficult to believe that Murphy never heard Keel’s 1981 composition.
Murphy isn’t the only artist to take inspiration from the Austin musician. Pet Shop Boys’ defining hit ‘West End Girls’ bears a striking resemblance to Keel’s ‘Dance It Down’, released in 1983. The Pool track became particularly popular among certain underground DJs upon its release, finding favour with its downbeat dance rhythm. Pet Shop Boys recorded ‘West End Girls’ the very same year, and the song topped the singles charts in the UK and the USA upon its widespread release in 1986, while ‘Dance It Down’ never made it to mass audiences.
Whether or not Keel was explicitly and deliberately ripped off by the likes of LCD Soundsystem and Pet Shop Boys is difficult to say with certainty. Given that Keel reportedly passed away in 2017, years after the success of ‘Dance Yrself Clean’, it seems unlikely that he ever sought royalties or songwriting credits for those hit tracks.
Either way, the fact that his style was still captivating audiences in the form of an LCD Soundsystem track decades after his self-released tapes hit the airwaves speaks to the innovative, ahead-of-his-time power of Patrick Keel and The Pool.
