"Fog" has always been an appropriate moniker for the group led by Andrew Broder. Right from day one, their sound has been characterised by swirls of sound and noise, beautiful in their own way, but which also obscure the real motives behind the music. Fog are intentionally a difficult band, but that's part of the appeal to the faithful, and what sets this music apart from Fog's contemporaries.

On "Ditherer", Broder channels all of the various directions that Fog have taken over the past half-decade or so, and distils them into the knockout album that you never knew the band needed to make. The point is not that anything particularly new to the formula is introduced on this album, the point is that this time around the formula is adjusted and subverted, combining all the ingredients into a sound that is simultaneously refreshing and familiar. Gone is the indie hip-hop that influenced the band's earliest work, but in its place are influences as far apart as Neutral Milk Hotel, Radiohead, The Mars Volta and The Arcade Fire.

We Will Have Vanished, the first of the eleven songs on offer here, is a pretty good indication of what is to follow on the album. Echoing, squealing guitar chords form the basis of the song's verses (it's easy to imagine Broder blasting every power chord off on his guitar, windmill style), only for everything to suddenly stop dead at about the ninety second mark, leading to a dense, atmospheric interlude before the guitar kicks in again just as suddenly.

Later tracks are just as chaotic and unpredictable. Inflatable Ape, Part Three has a similarly disjointed song structure, although this time it's joined by a soaring vocal performance on the chorus that gives the song some accessibility and proves that Broder is perfectly capable of writing a good pop hook when the mood grabs him. Again, this is not a particularly new development, previous Fog work also have hooks from time to time, but the consistency that they're delivered with here is what sets "Ditherer" apart.

The rest of the album is just as wonderfully shambolic. I Have Been Wronged again features a lovely singalong chorus, in addition to an extended segment that has Broder simply singing what sounds like "Yum, yum, yum, yum", and some distinctly prog-sounding synth work in between verses. The guest appearance of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker of Low on What's Up Freaks? for a mostly orthodox folk-Americana piece even proves that the band is capable of playing it straight when they want to.

You don't listen to bands like Fog for their lyrical insight; most of the actual lyrics on this album read on paper end up looking like nonsensical gibberish, but apart from that one small complaint, "Ditherer" is a very impressive little package. It's accessible enough for those unfamiliar with the band's previous work to enjoy, yet it's still deep and Fog-ian enough for dedicated fans like me to enjoy as well.