Andrew Broder brings up a half-dozen genres when talking about Fog's third and latest outing, 10th Avenue Freakout. Although critics have suggested that the disc is the Minnesota producer's least accessible work to date, he argues that the songs easily fall under the umbrella of pop. That said, he happily acknowledges that the release also contains more than trace elements of indie-flavoured hip-hop, frazzled glitch-techno, glacial post-rock, and underground anti-folk. In a diversion that couldn't be more removed from his past as a turntablist, he even invokes mesquite-scented alt-country on "Small Burn". Conspicuously, Broder doesn't once throw out the idea that 10th Avenue Freakout at times sounds very much like a freeform jazz record. It turns out there's a reason for that.

"I have a thing, because I'm self-taught, that I'm not up to coining the music I play as jazz music," Broder says, on the line from his Twin Cities home. "I almost feel like I can't put myself in that category because everyone in it is so studied and proficient on so many levels. Still, it's obviously a huge influence, and definitely a lot more so in the past couple of years."

So while 10th Avenue Freakout is re?leased on the underground hip-hop imprint Lex, the disc finds Broder and his crew of backing musicians in the mood to step outside the box. The menacing "We're Winning", for example, fuses drum 'n' bass with round-midnight hard bop, and "The Poor Fella" takes random suction-cup percussion and ringing phones and turns them into something strangely melodic. The title track, meanwhile, starts out all crooked-rain guitars, frazzled electronica, and all-over-the-map drums, eventually incorporating everything from woozy horns to random space-age phaser blasts.

"There are a lot of very skilled jazz musicians in Minneapolis, and some of them play with me in Fog," Broder says. "Playing with them has had a big impact, especially live. We're able to do a lot of improvising, which has sort of taught me about jazz in reverse. I started off as a rap DJ who wanted to make a mix tape that had a guitar solo on it. That's metamorphosed into the first two Fog records."

Like those discs-2001's eponymous turntables-meet-folktronic debut, and 2003's often-eerie low-fi gem Ether Teeth-10th Avenue Freakout isn't easily pigeonholed. Stretches of "Holy Holy Holy" sound like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan spinning scratchy vinyl over Henryk Gíƒ ³recki-in- November violins, and "The Rabbit" brings to mind Spiritualized's Jason Pierce taking his best shot at garage pop. Powering the album are everything from the rock 'n' roll staples of drums, guitar, and bass to pump organs, clarinets, trumpets, saxophones, synths, and cellos.

What Broder likes best about 10th Avenue Freakout is that it marks a continuation in his evolution as an artist. After starting off playing in low-rent punk bands, he switched to working the decks at hip-hop nights in the clubs. That led to his rebirth as Fog, which has blossomed from a bedroom project into a full band that he's only beginning to realize the potential of.

"With each record I've got more confident, to the point where I'm now able to converse with other people musically," says Broder, who brings Fog to the Media Club next Thursday (June 2). "It's a continual learning experience where I'm pushing myself in exploratory new directions."

The next time he hits the studio, he might actually be comfortable calling himself a jazz musician.