Dave Ihmels

Dave Ihmels: The Severe Angels
Del Ray’s own Dave Ihmels gives us this electro-folk masterpiece, a beautiful tug of war between dark and light, with some truly memorable songs. “Sulamith” is hands down the best track I have heard from anyone all year. - Old Town Crier

The DC-area music scene is an odd one. Sure, we have Go-Go and Hardcore, and we had the Arlington “Teen Beat”/”Simple Machines” bands of the 90s, but we’ve never really had that trademark stamp like New Orleans, Austin, Athens, Nashville, Seattle, San Francisco, etc. That’s not to say that our scene doesn’t thrive – in fact, it’s phenomenal – it’s just more scattered and stylistically diverse, and you really have to put in some legwork to discover local music. While I can’t claim to be an expert on our scene, I have seen a fair number of artists perform and have heard many of their albums. Some are quite pleasant while others are…not so. Every so often, however, my ears come across something otherworldly, something that makes me immensely proud to be from this area, something that tells me there is hope in this vast eclectic musical landscape.

I first met Dave Ihmels at an open mic, back in 2007. Like many performers at open mics, Dave played an acoustic set with a hard lean towards folk music, offering a mix of old chestnuts as well as a few original songs. Unlike many performers at open mics, it was clear that there was some sort of visionary spirit at play. Dave’s songs were subtle but very clever, and he is a hell of a singer. I recall having to take a couple of deep breaths when it was my turn to play. Over the years, we’d occasionally bump into each other and I’ve seen him play from time to time. He’s always on-point, always inspiring. Like me, Dave is a ridiculously prolific songwriter. Unlike me, he doesn’t release much of his music, The Severe Angels being his second album, after 2008’s Expandable. I knew this album was on the way and, while I was looking forward to hearing it and perhaps writing about it, I’ll admit that I was probably expecting something pleasant, at best. I had no idea….

Simply put, this record is outstanding. Even more than outstanding….it is astounding. It’s a sly, layered piece of work, the kind of record that hits you like a sucker-punch when you first hear it. And then, as you continue to replay it, the different layers slowly reveal themselves. The first time I heard this was through headphones (the recommended method of hearing this) and my initial reaction was the same as it was the first time I heard Kid A by Radiohead, or the new Beauty Pill album. My mind was blown. Dave said he was going for “art”, and this album certainly confirms that. Conventionally-structured songs sit alongside quirky, left-field numbers, all of which are accentuated by the sort of spaced-out synths and ambient cacophonies that bands like Gong and Hawkwind made entire careers of.

Kicking off with the celestial overture, “Walk Out”, Dave quickly proclaims that he has “many demons to fight, in my head” – and then proceeds to spend the next ten songs fully engaged in that war. By the time we reach the closing track, it’s not entirely clear who is victorious, but that’s not quite the point. It’s more about the journey and, in the end, this battle between peace and madness is one hell of a ride.

The album’s undisputed highlight comes early on, in the form of “Sulamith”, one of the best tracks I’ve heard from anyone all year. With a feel that is reminiscent of a cross between Burt Bacharach and Tsunami, and featuring a spine-tingling vocal appearance by the exquisite Celeste Starchild, this is a song that never fails to elicit goosebumps. I could listen to “Sulamith” all day. But then I would miss out on the rest of this album. Soooo…onward!

“A Murder Of Crows” sounds like what you would get if Leonard Cohen made a record with Robert Pollard – it’s one of the weirdest songs I have ever heard, and I say that with the highest of praise. And then there’s the Neil Young-meets-Automatic-era-REM of “Rubber Mask”, a perfect “track four”, if there could be one. “High Voltage Touch” manages to do, in three and a half minutes, what U2 spent the entire 1990s trying to accomplish, and pulls it off spectacularly. Closing out “side one” is the tripped-out “I Am The Moon” which calls to mind, at times, Prince…if Prince happened to come from the same planet as Ash Ra Tempel.

Continuing the pattern of light/dark, “side two” opens with the beautiful “Look Through My Eyes With Me”, a track that My Morning Jacket would kill to have written. Next up is “Otto”. Now, when you have a song called “Otto”, you know you damn well better deliver. The gritty, folky blues of this track does not disappoint, the chaos of the story perfectly accentuated by producer Dave Mallen’s frantic guitar solo. Next up, Dave gets funky on “Prince Eugene” which reminds me of what would have happened if “Lunatic Fringe” had been a Talking Heads song. Yeah….it’s that cool.

Next up is “Wires”, the sort of freak-folk that calls to mind Devendra Banhart, and has a great, sleepy, late night feel, a breather after such an auditory whirlwind. This is one of three songs to feature the violin wizardry of Todd Baker, one of DC’s greatest talents, who lays down a haunting solo overtop of this spaced-out waltz. “I’m Not Not Tryin’” closes the album on a semi-detached psychedelic note, as the war with the demons concludes with peace in madness.

Indeed!

Often when you have a super experimental album, it is at the expense of actual songs. I saw Dave’s album-release show at the Evening Star and, having heard these songs performed by just Dave and Todd Baker, they really hold up on their own. In fact, it would be neat if Dave were to also release an acoustic version of this album …or, you know, just burn me a copy of the demos ;)

Hear this album for yourself at http://daveihmels.bandcamp.com - Old Town Crier

There are many singer songwriters who are influenced by the music they have come to know and love. Unfortunately, there are few who know how to take these influences and make them their own.

Dave Ihmels is one songwriter who does not have a problem with creating a song, turning a lyric, and weaving melodies of songs he has heard all of his life, without making them a subliminal simulacra.

This outing starts with the song “Walk Out”. It definitely puts you in the 21st century and has haunting harmonies that were very popular in early Rock and Roll, but seldom heard today. My impression of the song was the Everly Brothers meet Techno. This song was a strong enough opener to keep me listening to the end.

“Sulamith”. This song has finely layered textures of percussion. It sort of reminds me of Paul Simon when he was on top of his game.

“A Murder of Crows” finds Dave singing in a lower and darker subject matter, ala Leonard Cohen, who by the way is one of my favorite songwriters.

“Rubber Mask”, has an unforgettable melody. The song is Euro pop with a nod to Irish music. I could see The Pogues performing this song.
The next two songs could very well be the hooks of the whole collection.

“High Voltage Touch” has everything I love about the 1980’s. At the same time it still captures the Indie spirit of today’s young people’s music. I heard hints of Crowded House (not too shabby) and a heavy dance beat, reminiscent of Blondie’s “Heart of Glass”.

“I Am The Moon” could very well be the title song of this album. This song would be the one most likely to get heavy rotation on XM Sirius and other Indie College stations. Although it’s not my personal favorite, it’s very commercial.

“Look Through My Eyes With Me” is a pleasant and fun Folk Rock song. I loved this song and this style of music. It puts me in mind of Fairport Convention and other stars of the coffee house era. Keep in mind I am dating myself, simply by my reminiscence of this type of music.

That takes us to “Otto”. “Otto” is the funkiest song of this collection. The Dylanesque lyrics are underlined by psychedelic guitar and a veteran like myself can’t help but hear the fun packed rollicking of The Monkees melodies and phrasing.

“Prince Eugene” skips down the same fun path as “Otto”, but it is more narrative.

“Wires”. “Wires” is the most folky of this entire outing. But then again, it can never get to folky for this old Greenwich Village dweller. I am a sucker for songs that change modes from the minor to major.

And finally, “I’m Not Not Tryin”. It’s very reminiscent of The Magical Mystery Tour. Fans of The Beatles would probably be the only ones to make that correlation.

It is apparent to me that Dave has travelled down the same musical roads as myself and other peers and like all songwriters, uses what they learned as a muse for their own creativity. This collection of songs should hold the attention of the listeners. This collection is slightly eclectic, but Dave has a style that weaves a common thread throughout his songs from beginning to end. I personally would recommend this album to anyone who wants more from their listening repertoire than hip hop or the same, same, same Nashville robotic trend.

Billy Hancock
October 2015 - Billy Hancock (DC Legendary Songwriter, Rockabilly Hall of Fame)

January 15, 2009

An evocative paragraph appears on the inside cover of singer-songwriter Dave Ihmels's independently released CD, "Expandable."

It reads, in part: "More in the earth than in outer space, this is songwriting for any room of the house, but with a hankering for the basement. Morning sun commingling with the late-night blur, favoring not mud nor air but loose dirt."

Asked who wrote such a poetic metaphor for his music, Ihmels freely admits, "I did." He was inspired, he says, by classic folk albums he listened to as a younger musician. "Remember in the '60s, you opened up the first Peter, Paul and Mary record, and it would say a statement that captured the spirit of it? I modeled this little statement after an idea like that, to try to tell you what you might expect to hear."

In more concrete comparisons, writers have cited such names as Neil Young, Nick Drake and the Grateful Dead and musical genres such as folk, new age and Americana to describe Ihmels's sound. His CD, released in April, is the type that rewards close listening, as the songs seem simple in a casual listen but unfold to close attention with intriguing subtleties in the arrangements, use of electronic keyboards and harmonies. The sophistication is made more remarkable when one learns that it was recorded in Ihmels's basement.

"I did it on digital four-track," the musician says, adding that he had some long-distance help. The producer, Steven Putt, is a longtime friend and collaborator who lives in Michigan. Ihmels would record tracks and put them into a kind of online filing cabinet, known as a file transfer protocol, or FTP, site, and Putt would retrieve them. "We never even saw each other during the making of the album; we just sent tracks and chatted on Gmail about it," Ihmels says. "We barely talked on the phone." The result, nonetheless, has a warmth and intimacy that belies such remote, high-tech processes.

Ihmels, originally from the Philadelphia area, lived in Michigan for six years before moving to the District in 1995. Although he says he wasn't very musically active at the time, "I knew there was a pretty good mid-Atlantic singer-songwriter thing" happening.

He sees the good and the bad inherent in the local scene. "It can be a tough place," he says of the Virginia-Maryland-District triangle, but he's particularly fond of audiences in the Old Dominion: "There tend to be more 'hanger-outers' in Virginia who will try out a new sound or listen to somebody a little bit longer if they don't know who they are."

And FireFlies, as he tells it, is a bright spot on the scene: "It's a pretty new place, and some of the various songwriters around town have shifted over to it from some of the showcases." A bar and a restaurant ("They've got a really good clay pizza oven and a ton of beer of tap"), the venue offers live music most nights in a small, casual environment that Ihmels says "reminds me very vaguely of the Iota" in Arlington and is popular with the after-work crowd.

Ihmels is a bit of a regular himself, appearing often with his "Expandable" collaborator Linda Sublett (vocals, flute) and Todd Baker (electric and acoustic violin), a member of the Cravin' Dogs. The show usually begins, he says, as "Linda does some cover tunes. She has a great voice and is a guitar player. I don't know when she moved to D.C., but she had her own band when she was in Evansville, Illinois, called Chelsea Morning. She'll do the opening set of cover music, and Todd sits in with her and plays violin. And then I join them, and we do my material for the second part of the show."

That set might include a few covers, such as John Prine, Neil Young, a more obscure Beatles track and . . . "The three of us love doing Warren Zevon 'cause we're all big fans," Ihmels says.

Along with material from "Expandable," there are some new songs, too. "I've got some material that I'm always working on," he says. "Sometimes, my songs get revisited. I pull new tunes into the live act with Todd and Linda. They do a really interesting thing when they take hold of my music. There's no violin on the album, but it's a prominent piece of the live act. Todd's not one of these soloists who's like, 'Get ready for the big solo.' He really listens and works himself into the sound. We've had a lot of fun together in the last few months, honing our sound."


-- MARIANNE MEYER - The Washington Post

Expandable
Dave Ihmels

Washington, DC has many claims to fame – monuments, cherry blossoms, politics – but there is one thing that will always fall short of the list, folk music. Dave Ihmels has set out to change that.

With his hotly anticipated debut album Expandable, Ihmels is turning heads and opening ears in a city yearning for a voice. With the delicate Burn Every Tree opening the CD listeners are welcomed into “starlight and secrecy” as they begin their journey through what will surely be the cornerstone of Ihmels’ blossoming career.

As many albums do, the first three tracks of Expandable move swiftly and begin to unravel the artist within. This is where the depth of many albums stop; however with the opening of Over The Big Pond (Track 4) listeners are greeted with a new sound entirely. Atmospheric and spatial, looping a multitude of voices and electronic keyboards, it becomes glaringly obvious that Ihmels is just warming up.

Following Over The Big Pond, Green Field bursts back into folk/pop easily wrapping you around its fingertips. The catchiest song on the album, Green Field will catch you (as it did me) singing the final chorus on your first listen.

Other stand out tracks include Down To The Afterlife a Who-esque rocker that will have you tapping your feet and rocking your hips, Jellyfish Blues, personifying oceanic life in a way you never thought possible and Stay In The Light, a song that could easily be sandwiched into a Nick Drake album, holding up the entire way.

Fellow DC folkster Linda Sublett lends her vocals (and flute) to the album, rounding out Ihmels’ voice and helping create a depth that many never achieve.

Expandable has something for everyone and Dave Ihmels is living proof that folk will never die in a city where politics are left to run at-will.

Expandable is available on iTunes and…CDbaby.

-Tom Goss (The Acoustic District) - The Acoustic District 5/16/08

"Expandable" is the title of the new CD from Dave Ihmels of the DC area. It is a pleasing combination of New Age, Americana, and Folk influences with a bit of Grateful Dead and Neil Young tossed in as well. It has very good production, great harmonies, and outstanding instrumental accomponiment by folks such as Chuck Rainville and Linda Sublett and the Producer, Steven Putt. Listening to the CD is a calming influence and you can put away your days cares and worries by listening to it.

My favorite track is "Jellyfish Blues" but I also particularly like "Burn Every Tree", "Stay in the Light", and "Green Field". The CD is contemplative , calming, and accessible work by an accomplished singer-songwriter, Dave Ihmels, and a worthy addition to any CD collection. Go buy it or better yet, go see one of his shows!

~Joel Pomerantz
SAW - Songwriters Association of Washington