Voip is an up-and-coming psych rock duo from Kentucky. They recorded their first EP "Avoiding Voip" "in a laughably tiny little "nook" area in their apartment." But the small space contained big dreams and big ideas.

Big ideas start right on the intro track "Magnet Mirror". The band were brave enough to invite "one of their favorite people in the world" — Reverend Lionel Fanthorpe as narrator. His deep mystical voice, the same voice that performed exorcisms and preached its share of sermons, is shrouded in sci-fi textures and hallucinatory synth leads, playing melodies Daft Punk and Jean-Michel Jarre could be proud of.

"Small World" expands the band's dreamy retrofuturistic universe with its cartoonish triangle wave solos, galloping rhythm guitars and crisp drums that boldly kick off the track only to get swallowed by the synth ambience by its end.

Fun fact: the programmed drums, however sharp and cool they may sound, are just baby steps for the band. The duo has already finished recording & sequencing their first full length album, "Becoming Voip", which is poppier and more polished than the EP we are listening to today, and they "hope to incorporate many more live drums rather than sampled drum kits on their works going further." So, I guess, the "tiny nook" is sort of their... "Chrysalis" — which is also the name of the next track on the EP. "Chrysalis" is a dizzy ride with huge pads, "trumpety" guitars and fun, joyful, festive-sounding synth melodies. If this is your caterpillar stage, then I can only imagine how head-spinningly bright and beautiful the butterfly is going to turn out.

"Grid Wave" is lighter and breezier, and it adds a transparent electric piano to the equation, going into full chillax mode for the last half a minute or so.

"Within Reach" continues with an equally light-footed piano, but it brings back the cool trippiness and slightly cartoonish atmosphere. And, of course, the joyous synth melodies that we've grown to love are also there. Add dirty guitar textures to the mix and prepare to be taken away into another world — a strange and beautiful universe of "Voip".

What kind of universe is it? Maybe we're inside a computer game. At least, the chiptune-ish intro of "Last Mirage" could suggest as much. But then the track grows much proggier than any 8bit arcade game could afford. The synths play crazy solos and the guitars add a pinch of dirt, until they all start to blur into a kind of drunken and sunstricken psychedelic haze.

The EP closes with "Just Outside of Frame" — a slower jam with more space for each note to breathe. If Kevin Parker used a time machine to get a gig as a composer for late Soviet sci-fi cartoons (think "The Mystery of the Third Planet"), the result might sound close to this. The track ends the EP in a beautiful and peaceful, somewhat new-agey way.

So, if this is what two extremely talented people can do in a "laughably tiny little nook", then who knows what happens when they get a proper room. "Avoiding Voip" is a fun, warm, dreamy slightly goofy little record, packed with sunny melodies and trippy textures, that doesn't take itself too seriously and routinely manages to touch deep spots in you and spark your imagination. It's got dense walls of sound, brave ideas and a disarmingly sincere intro from a legendary 91-year-old exorcist. And, of course, it's got that force, that almighty holy power that Voip's synths keep singing and their guitars keep screaming about without ever naming it. Go listen to the EP and stop avoiding it.