Wunderhorse - Midas

Midas is Wunderhorse's second album, released 30 August 2024 on Communion Records. The project began as a solo vehicle for Jacob Slater (ex-Dead Pretties frontman), with debut album Cub (2022) taking him from pub gigs to Kentish Town Forum and Glastonbury 2023. For Midas, Slater formalised his touring band, guitarist Harry Fowler (a friend since age 14), bassist Peter Woodin and drummer Jamie Staples, into a fully collaborative unit, writing half the album together in the studio for the first time.

The record was made at Pachyderm Studio in rural Cannon Falls, Minnesota, the same room that produced Nirvana's In Utero, PJ Harvey's Rid of Me and Soul Asylum's Grave Dancers Union. The band arrived without their own instruments, relying on the studio's collection: a '64 Stratocaster that Slater and Fowler fought over each morning, plus an Esquire and a 335 used on two songs. Producer Craig Silvey (Florence + The Machine, The National) pushed the sound into unfamiliar territory, including convincing Slater to run through a vintage Roland Jazz Chorus instead of his usual Fender Deluxe. Additional recording took place at RAK Studios in London. Mastered at Sterling Sound by Greg Calbi and Steve Fallon.

The album is a deliberate pivot from Cub's more polished indie towards something harder and less controlled. Guitars bite and wail, Staples hits as he means it, and Slater's lyrics, dark, direct, sometimes apocalyptic, are matched by a band playing with genuine force. "July" is the standout: slow-building and heavy, Slater screaming "I'm ready to die" over drums that feel like a weather event. "Superman" offers a brief, more vulnerable exhale before "Aeroplane" closes out at nearly nine minutes. The title track was captured in a scrappy live take; producer Silvey left the tape running and declared it the keeper.