“When the band started, I wanted it to be a structured techno-rock thing,” said Excepter’s John Fell Ryan, standing with his band mates in a Washington, D.C. night club before a recent gig. “But I was so used to improvising that I couldn’t help myself.” A battle between structure and freedom certainly informs Excepter’s blend of programmed beats, droning synthesizers, and zombie-like vocals, which often sounds like a dance mix and a noisy improvisation at the same time.

Yet this Bushwick, Brooklyn-based quartet’s approach is relatively simple: Each member plays an array of synths, samplers, and drum machines. “I’m always surprised that we’re the only band that has thought of doing what we do,” said Dan Hougland. “It seems really normal and natural to me.”

Ryan and Hougland began Excepter in 2002 during their days as club DJs. “We had a weekly gig together, and we started bringing synths and drum machines to the DJ booth,” Ryan said. “No one was coming anyway, and finding places to play loud is an issue in New York. So it was like, ‘Hey, here’s a sound system. Time to do some free experimentation.'” “Our DJ styles were all over the place, but not experimental for experimental’s sake,” Hougland said. “It was freedom with results.”

Excepter soon expanded to a quintet, but after two years of energetic recordings and inter-band struggles, three members departed. Nathan Corbin and Jon Nicholson replaced them, and a turning point arrived in last year’s “Sunbomber” EP, made in a single July afternoon. “It was the first time we recorded with that lineup, and since then we’ve been really happy,” Hougland said. “There was a safety in the old era; it was like, ‘Oh, we’re crazy, we kind of don’t have to be good.’ Now we play better and get along better, so we can’t just get by on our wacky reputation, which I like.”

Excepter’s new album, “Alternation” (5RC), due out on July 25, will be the closest the band has come to normalcy. Earlier records like its 2003 debut “KA” and 2005’s “Throne” buried individual elements under a hectic maelstrom, but here the group’s sound is stripped to a leaner core. Squiggly synths and moaning voices still create schizophrenic symphonies, but tracks like the bouncing “Ice Cream Van” and the catchy “Rock Stepper” feel like dance hits in search of a booming P.A. system.

It turns out “Alternation” is less a departure than a return to roots. “‘Rock Stepper’ was one of the first things we wrote,” Hougland said. “I thought we were going to be like that from the beginning, so ‘KA’ was kind of shocking. I didn’t know we sounded like that until the record came out.” “‘Rock Stepper’ was a real conscious decision,” Ryan said. “Everything else since has basically been stuff that happened while we were trying to get our act together.”

In fact, its act is now so together that the band is performing much more frequently. Last November, Excepter even played in front of 1,200 people, opening for Animal Collective at Webster Hall. “It was a big moment, to actually have a big audience who had to contend with us,” Hougland said. “We kind of split the room – half the people objected to it and half the people were psyched. For me that’s the perfect reaction.”

Excepter (with the Country Teasers) performs on June 15 at Tonic (107 Norfolk Street, 212-358-7501).