Outlandish yet thoroughly musical, guitarist Kat Bjelland's wail is the Babes' fiercest weapon. Yet so potent are bassist Maureen Herman and drummer Lori Barbero that this Minneapolis trio's attack is truly triple threatening, as evidenced in their fuzz-tone version of Sister Sledge's "We Are Family." A wry cover of Eric Carmen's "All by Myself" is nifty, too, but it's with startling originals that Toyland triumph. Their 1992 breakthrough, Fontanelle, found Bjelland focusing her feedback attack; Nemesisters sharpens it razor fine. "Drivin' " and "Killer on the Road" offer the sort of brilliant racket that thrills Lollapaloozers; more adventurous, however, are the slow, throbbing "Surd," the strange bolero of "22" and "Memory," a fractured blues. Difficult, beautiful and at times majestic, Nemesisters is a record of both nightmares and dreams. (RS 709)

PAUL EVANS