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Available in a variety of varyingly priced packages, Celebration Day is an opportunity to witness the power and the glory of Led Zeppelin, quite possibly for the last time, and they certainly don’t disappoint. “There are certain songs that have to be played,” Robert Plant admits here, before a shrieking ride through one of the best back catalogues in rock.

There’s a scorched-earth take on Dazed and Confused, then the band harnesses its considerable energy on Ramble On, Black Dog and Rock and Roll. By the time they get to Whole Lotta Love you could swim home on the testosterone. 

But there was always more to Led Zeppelin than amps that went up to 11. You think you’d groan, but Stairway to Heaven is curiously affecting (“Hey Ahmet,” grins Plant afterwards, “we did it”), while Kashmir has the relentless drive and authority of an invading army.

In My Time of Dying and Nobody’s Fault but Mine display Plant’s strengths as a singer, and the band’s empathy with the music which so inspired them. Truth be told, some of the Jimmy Page solos go on longer than The Archers, but to hear that potency harnessed and unleashed is undeniably impressive. Surprisingly, the star of the show is the drummer, young Jason Bonham. The sheer physicality of his playing is awesome and exhausting.

Following their split, Led Zeppelin have always been protective of their legacy. Celebration Day is a fitting addition to their history. Experienced in conjunction with Barney Hoskyns’ eye-opening new biography, Trampled Under Foot, this is a powerful reminder of just what made Zeppelin fly. Now, do excuse me… I think I can hear Valhalla calling… –BBC

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Every object inside Black Marble‘s debut A Different Arrangement LP seems swaddled in a thick layer of nicotine-stained gauze. The basslines flex their muscles inside the dressing, the bioluminescence of the synth leads peeking through at the seams. Chris Stewart could be singing across a foggy Brooklyn alley, his voice trailing with detached amusement as he spells out his wry philosophies. His lyrics come through in fits and starts, but even when they’re intelligible, they’re not the point. A Different Arrangement hinges on melody and the way it wrestles with itself across open space to nestle into a satisfying whole.

 Black Marble is all notes, nests and wires of notes, notes in logical progressions and notes that fall just short of where you expect them to go. The old, warm melodies of New Wave and the rigid post-punk spines are all there, but they’ve been pixelated and slushed around into a new product–a different arrangement, if you will.

The result is a quietly infectious record, the kind that seeps into your brainstem and bounces its many charms around without your realizing their source. So many tracks on A Different Arrangement chirp and squirm with soft synths and subtle hooks, yet Black Marble offer enough variation in texture and structure as to keep a uniform aesthetic interesting. They’re the chaos of Former Ghosts honed in to a knife’s edge, retaining the raw heat while relinquishing the forthright emotional barbs. As far as content goes, Black Marble relish ambiguity, straddling optimism and nihilism, never quite letting on what they’re thinking. But the masks only serve to augment a record whose textural complexities and depths sink in further, quietly addictive, play after play.—Prefix

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