Calling themselves ‘organic rockers’ is not a justification for a fusion of the electronic rock and heavy metal influences that lie behind Cypher 16. Largely scuzzy rock with some extraordinarily fine off-beat percussion (high-hats off to Chris Woollams) and deep and dirty bass work (well done Tom Clarke), there is an all-pervading sincerity and perhaps an ounce too much earnestness behind the band’s dubiously dense presentation.

What do you do, when your lead singer (Jack Doolan) is blessed with a surfeit of male hormones that gives him a heavy set of bass vocals? He cannot scream like a cock-rocker, so he resorts to alt-metal and that basso-profundo yowling to which middle American rockers can head-bang all night long. Actually, helped by the insistent and energised fretwork of Julian Shiu on ‘other’ guitars, it is aided and abetted by Doolan’s judiciously scored synthesizer effects that work surprisingly proficiently.

In case you are wondering why you may not have heard of Cypher 16 before, there is a perfectly sound reason. They have not played much commercially in the UK. They started young, aged just 16 years, only four years ago. In the intervening period, the quartet has refined its musicality with the precision of an engineering tool room. These guys know what they want and flash-in-the-pan is not it.

The only reason for this sampler CD is to provide precisely that, a sample of their creativity, allied to an audacious video shot in Gloucester Cathedral (also on the disc), deemed the most suitable space in which to play the epic ‘Symphony To End It All’, which tells the tale of a journey from the living to the after-life. Suitable on all the wrong levels.

The band has already been on a self-headlined tour of North America, while WOA Records based in Goa, funded a six-date tour around central India, which was hugely successful and resulted in a level of exposure to which few debutants could ever lay claim. Yet, there is something intelligent that is wrapped up in their superficial sounds. It is positive. It is energising. It is complex. It is bound to be entertaining to look at, as the video element of this debut disc highlights and they look good. They look the part. How far off is the finished album is anybody’s guess. I would suggest to make it soon as that broader exposure deserves to be exploited.