Infinitefreefall - Belief Systems (2024) Hi-Res

After loving everything about my first encounter with Infinitefreefall via the single “Desecrated Landscape,” I knew from that mercurial and marvelous single that it would need a whole album, at the very least, for me even to get a glimpse of Maxton Stenstrom’s musical vision. Well, here we are, more musical arrays that carry on where that one left off, a nine-track musical canvas upon which he and his chosen creative disciples paint singular sonic pictures.

It is fair to say that the opener, “Come Out You’re Surrounded” fits in more musical ideas and acoustic adventure than most music makers touch on in a whole album, perhaps a whole career – a wonderful blend of jangling chords and alt-rock energy, pop-aware and accessible hooks, sing-along vocal arrays, relentless drive, delicate refrains, motorik groove, density, intensity, futuristic motifs, analog edge and digital dexterity. And that is just one track.

“Masters of the Dream” floats with a sort of post-punk and suitably dream-pop vibe, gathering sonic weight as it moves forward. “Seismic Activity” is everything that pop could be if the genre sorted its act out and stopped finding itself beholden to the lowest common denominator, sonic actors. The title track sounds like a 50s lounge act being broadcast from the other side of the solar system—lounge jazz meets cosmic jive.

I probably said as much when discussing the earlier single, but there is something truly uncategorizable at work here, something that feels as if it only conforms to the musical rule book when it accidentally meets such conformity coming the other way – ships that pass in the night. In Maxton Stenstrom, we find someone who plays by his own rules, even if he doesn’t quite know what they are…or is even aware of the concept in the first place.

It’s anarchy, man. Anarchy of the most creative kind. Big, bold, beautiful sonic anarchy. And I want more…