The Vinyl Factory and Island Records present a deluxe gatefold vinyl edition of Paul Weller’s new album, Sonik Kicks.

Enjoying a constant critical high and a never ending creative peak, Paul Weller continues to push the boundaries when he releases his new album Sonik Kicks on 19 March 2012. Released on Island Records, Sonik Kicks is the follow up to the Mercury Music Award nominated Wake Up The Nation. This is Paul’s eleventh solo album, and like each of his solo albums, it’s his best yet.

Recorded in Weller’s own Black Barn Studios in Ripley, Surrey, with co-producer Simon Dine and trusted engineer Charles Rees, Paul enlisted musician friends such as Noel Gallagher, Graham Coxon and Aziz Ibrahim to help out.

Sonik Kicks reveals Paul Weller once again shaking up his palate and stirring his influences anew, mixing pop art punch with soulful communication, jazzy explorations into psychedelia and dub with razor-sharp melodies, abstract soundscapes with clear-eyed forest-folk.

Product Details:

* Heavyweight 180-gram vinyl
* Bespoke gatefold sleeve with specially treated matt UV artwork
* Inner sleeve featuring lyrics and artwork
* Exclusive insert written by Michael Horovitz

Available to pre-order now; released 19 March 2012.

The vinyl release features a live recording performed by Chuck, a singer and musician who often plays along the South Bank. Deller heard him playing, and liked his take on classic songs, compounding his ongoing interest in cover versions, “that surprise you, and that add to songs we already know”.

Deller invited Chuck to a recording studio in West London, where they recorded two tracks live, direct-to-disc. Chuck recorded two cover versions, one of Johnny Cash’s ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ and one of ‘Island in the Sun’, by Harry Belafonte.

On the front of each sleeve will be an individually printed 13cm square photograph of Chuck performing on the Southbank, taken by Jeremy Deller, hand-dipped into the centre of each cover. The record will be released on 180-gram heavyweight vinyl, cut at 45rpm, pressed on the EMI 1400 in Hayes, Middlesex. Each copy of this edition of 100 will be hand signed by Jeremy Deller and Chuck.

Product Details:
* Limited edition of 100 hand-signed and numbered copies
* Pristine white Colorplan sleeve with hand-dipped Jeremy Deller photograph
* 180-gram heavyweight white vinyl containing 2 songs peformed by Chuck, cut direct to vinyl at Electric Mastering, London
* Available to pre-order now, released Monday 20 February

Deller has helped to rewrite the rules of contemporary art for the past two decades, moving seamlessly from artistic producer, publisher, filmmaker, collaborator and archivist. His interest in the convergence of art and music is evident in the show, from his 1997 Acid Brass work, where traditional brass bands performed arrangements of acid house music, to The Uses of Literacy, an exhibition created by fans of the Manic Street Preachers which brings together paintings, collages, drawings, books, poetry and ephemera inspired by the band’s lyrics.