MOST MUSICIANS will tell you recording is an intense process. Sleater-Kinney have only intensified that intensity, partly because of economics -- recording outside the major-label system means they can't be indulgent about studio time -- and partly for immediacy's sake. The past two years, they've graced top-10 lists with albums (1996's Call the Doctor and 1997's Dig Me Out) that were recorded and mixed in a matter of days.

For their next, as-yet-untitled album, the trio -- singer-guitarists Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein, drummer Janet Weiss -- have worked a month with producer Roger Moutenot (Yo La Tengo). But like the musical equivalent of a long-distance runner, they've only extended the rigor of their initial approach.

Whereas in the past Tucker would cry, eat, and sleep after a 10- to 12-hour recording session, this time, she jokes dryly, "we did our crying and eating in the studio." Reached via phone as the group mixes one last song, she praises Moutenot and guest violinist Seth Warren of Red Stars Theory. "The new songs are more complicated and less straightforward sonically," she says guardedly. "With Call the Doctor and Dig Me Out, we used the same guitar sound through the whole album. I love those albums -- they're really rockin' -- but this time we changed the texture and resonance of the guitars for each song. Sometimes even within a song."

"I kind of feel like I can't even talk about the album, because it's not done," Weiss says, on her way out for a piroshki ("The best of all worlds: potato, bread.... It's all about economics"). She feels more comfortable comparing her role in Sleater-Kinney with her work in the two-piece Quasi, whose Featuring "Birds" is one of this year's most acclaimed rock albums. "With Sam [Coomes, of Quasi], I'm filling up more space; Quasi is roomier melodically, and a little more relaxed. Carrie and Corin -- their guitars and vocals -- fill so much space with tension. I'm pausing at some points, pulling at some points, and at other points I just sit back and let them battle."

Maybe because she has a linguistics degree, Brownstein is less wary of deconstructing what she's still in the process of making. "I think this album is an exploration of love, and searching for beauty," she says. "Sometimes, in those searches, you stumble upon things that are ... dark. This album has a lot of shadows. I don't think Corin and I have explored love in quite this way before. Not just in terms of relationships but also spirituality."

She cringe-chuckles slightly at the last word, then continues. "Listening, Corin has said 'I'm scared. The songs are pretty.' But we've been searching for grace and salvation -- not in a religious sense but in everyday life."

Sleater-Kinney previewed most of the album recently at a show in Portland. Newer material like "Banned from the End of the World," "Hot Rock," and "The Size of Our Love" broadens and adds detail to the group's dynamic. Less extroverted and "jubilant" (Weiss and Brownstein's word) than Dig Me Out, the songs blaze and flow through many passages; they're as natural as breathing, but -- like life -- they aren't easy.

The unease stems from Sleater-Kinney's sonic and lyrical honesty: their music has always faced -- directly and metaphorically with equal precision -- the interconnected worlds (musical, punk-political, personal) it has grown from. Of "Living in Exile," another new track, Brownstein says, "Even in the midst of the spotlight, and working with people, you can feel alienated, like you're constantly betrayed by others, and ultimately by yourself, for having any kind of belief in a system. 'Exile' means more than escape -- it has a feeling of banishment. And it feels self-imposed, at least in the song."

One of the more dramatic tracks on the upcoming album is "God Is a Number." "We saw the movie Pi last night, and there's a scene where these Hasidic Jews tell the lead character that God's name isn't 'God', but a number," Brownstein says. "Corin was freaked out about that coincidence. Speaking for Corin, I think the song's about how everything is filtered through quantitative screens today. Because we deal with formulas through the technology we employ, it's reached a point where our own spirit has been boiled down to machinery. We've explored this before, on [Dig Me Out's] "Heart Factory," but this is more of a broad statement. And it's a pretty scary song -- Corin hits some crazy notes."

As Brownstein says this, Tucker's singing voice blares in the background. "That sound can cut through anything," Brownstein notes with a laugh.

"On the other records," she continues, "I've felt a bit like I've gone into the studio, thrown up, and then gone back out. This time, I could feel the songs forming. But it was just as nerve-racking, because I couldn't see the end sometimes. Early on, I had a lot of anxiety -- the songs started seeming like these compartmentalized sections, and I didn't know how they fit together. But when we started mixing and I started hearing the songs as a whole, I was happier."

Because Sleater-Kinney haven't played in California in more than a year, their upcoming shows will focus on Dig Me Out. Separately and together, the trio have a busy schedule before the release of the new album next January. Along with the California shows, they'll be touring the Midwest and Europe this fall. Weiss will also be playing shows with Quasi, opening for and sometimes accompanying Elliott Smith. Tucker's other band, Cadallaca -- a humorous homage to the Shangri-Las and '60s Girls in the Garage groups -- has a lo-fi album due out in September. And Brownstein is in the early stages of a project with Helium's Mary Timony. "I don't think we've betrayed anything," Brownstein says of the new album. "If anything, this is what I've always wanted to do."