Fog

Andrew Broder’s latest offering has pretty as well as irritating moments. The first track of this seven-song EP, "Whom That Hits Walls” is one of the most challenging tracks. Soon into this discordant number loopy electronic sounds and snatches of percussion are seemingly randomly injected. It all culminates with a whirring, bleeping cacophony — it’s definitely the kind of thing you have to be in the mood for. Another number, the piano-based "I, Baby” is lulling and trying at the same time with its cutesy lyrics: "Me lifty!/See?/Me strongy!/Me a baby/Me poopee.” The purely pleasing numbers are the tender "Cockeyed Cookie Pusher” and "Melted Crayons.” The former starts with gentle singing accompanied by an acoustic guitar and ends with an infusion of instrumentation: a tinkling xylophone, crashing cymbals, skittering percussion along with melodic wooing. The latter has a fuzzy record scary movie soundtrack background with a muffled thudding drum, submerged samples of people talking and strange zappy electronic sounds interspersed throughout. Hummer is definitely not for everyone, but I suspect Broder has a devout following that probably already knows this is to be Fog’s last album on Ninja Tune.