If rock music is comparable to a game of checkers, Maps & Atlases would be Bobby Fischer, playing a similar but more intellectual game. Full of mathematical mastery in the vain of Don Caballero and Hella. But the bonus here is, where many math rock bands are all-too-often preoccupied with showing off their ability to play complex rhythms and scales, even when it makes the music unlistenable, Maps & Atlases contain their sudden changes and maximal musical acrobatics within the confines of a relatively standard four-minute pop song structure that actually sounds like a song. From Chicago.

Holy Mysterious Internet Hype! There's more information on the wrapper of a candy bar than there is on the Internet about Cults. Cults is the just recently formed lovechild of 21-year-old NYC film students and couple Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion. As opposed to many so-called ‘internet hype bands’ which seem to follow a ‘marketing plan’ and utilize the whole ‘mystery’ thing as an additional gimmick, Cults really did nothing much besides putting up a few songs on the artist platform Bandcamp and the major indie signposts such as Gorilla vs. Bear and Pitchfork went wild.

Sound-wise, Cults are really close to 60s girl groups such as The Shangri-Las and scandinavian twee pop, while you can definitely hear some hints of modern production techniques in their currently available works. According to an interview with Pitchfork, this direction of sound is a result of the different music backgrounds of the duo, Madeline coming from a punk background and Brian being into psychedelic surf-rock, leading to them listening to Motown-era soul music when they started dating. 2010 is weird.

With infectious melodies accompanied by intricate guitar, crumbling distortion, trumpets, and violins - this minimalist and 'sweetly cacophonous' Brooklyn outfit will make you smile or crush your soul depending on your current level of sadness. Brooklyn