Mick Turner/Tren Brothers: Blue Trees (Inertia)

This meandering, loose-limbed, lazy sounding and creaking collection of instrumentals comes from Mick Turner and Jim White of Australia's Dirty Three.

These are pieces they recorded over the years and released on vinyl only singles, as limited edition CDs or on now-unavailable compilations. There is nothing here to get your pulse going (the record label name is telling), most tracks amble along in a wheezy and appealing manner -- and my guess is this will sell absolutely nothing.

But that will be a shame because the lazy mood, the alt.country stylings, the head nodding funky country, and the deliberately languid mood makes for some effortless, sunny day listening where the sounds wash over you, sometimes grab your attention, and at others just as happily let you go your own way.

Is alt.ambient a genre?