Slow Draw Premieres “Entrances and Exits” Video; New Album Burnt Counters Out Now
Burnt Counters, the latest full-length from Texas-based experimentalist solo-project Slow Draw, came out yesterday, April 12. It is the second album of 2026 for multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Mark Kitchens (also of Stone Machine Electric and the Obelisk co-presented festival Heavy Mash) behind February’s Is it Death Metal or Sadness? (review here), and as one both would and wouldn’t expect, a marked departure in form.
Slow Draw in these eight songs embraces more of a full-band sound, and what that generally but not exclusively means is that the drones that have typified some of the more accessible moments of the project are here backed by drums. That doesn’t apply to the nonetheless Earth-y feedbacky lines under the long sample in opener “Entrances and Exits” — which, hey, I know we’re here for an album premiere, but there’s a video that’s brand new too and you’ll find that down near the bottom like shh it’s a secret — but it for sure distinguishes the self-jamming low heavy psych fuzz of “Crush” and the subsequent “Totems,” which runs eight minutes and like the leadoff has space carved out for its sampling, though there are also verses. Kitchens embracing a variety of forms is nothing new for Slow Draw, but the folkgaze of “As I Stare” is both a preface for the later acoustic guitar of the penultimate “Walk in the Woods with Dad,” and a meditation that speaks to the willyfully Om-ian central line of “Escape,” the title of which is acutely aware of what it’s offering the listener.
“Roadblock” brings a more Melvinsy chug to the band-methodology of “Crush,” and while Kitchens is tentative on vocals, the low-in-the-mix and largely-raw presentation of his voice fits with the off-genre sensibility of Slow Draw generally — that is to say, he’s doing the thing, but in his own way. That’s very much been Slow Draw‘s defining ethic, wherever a given release has gone in terms of sound, and the field recordings and plucked strings of “Walk in the Woods with Dad” hold no less emotional resonance for the weirdness that pervades around them. Rather, the
different sides enhance each other across the 41 minute of the album, and as Burnt Counters caps with its title-track, it departs once again, this time into a cosmic sprawl that feels like it was intentionally left undrummed to emphasize the float. There’s a sample, obscure but there like a garbled transmission, and the keys and maybe guitar have been duly warped to coincide.
Kitchens cites the Burnt Counters as more personal, and the intimacy of “Walk in the Woods with Dad,” and the scientific framing of atheism in the sample across “Entrances and Exits” feels like a purposefully-placed thesis as if to say, “here’s what we’re thinking about this time.” Such clarity of communication is an element that has taken hold over time in Slow Draw, and as Kitchens continues to feel his way forward as a vocalist, learning and growing with each release, the focus there on Is it Death Metal or Sadness?, much of which was based in captured off-the-cuff everyday sing-songing, the turn that Burnt Counters represents feels dramatic on its own, but in the context of Kitchens‘ continued plunge into the aural unknown, it’s a fascinating place for him to end up this time around and organically proves the concept of Slow Draw as both an emotionally expressive solo outlet and a full band jamming.
Where it goes from here, of course, is anybody’s best guess.
That too is part of the appeal. Slow Draw has occupied reaches political and aesthetic, and the can-be-anything arthouse persona serves Kitchens well on Burnt Counters. It also builds on the vibrant living-creative documenting of Is it Death Metal or Sadness?, because the artistic growth feels born of and in response to genuine human experience.
As always, I hope you enjoy. Kitchens‘ explanation of Burnt Counters follows the player below, with the premiere of the “Entrances and Exits” video. Of course the full album is near the bottom of the post. For best results, approach with an open mind. Yes, all of it:
Slow Draw, “Entrances and Exits” video premiere
Mark Kitchens’ (one third of Stone Machine Electric) long-running solo project Slow Draw deals in patient and often unsettling drone, ambient, and psychedelia. Following 2025’s album The People’s Department of Governmental Checks & Balances and its penchant for heavy, distorted nightmare fuel, Kitchen returns with new album Burnt Counters. Dark and poignant in new ways, “Burnt Counters” carves out a very personal corner of Slow Draw’s discography.
IN THE BAND’S OWN WORDS:
“This recording of this album started in the summer of 2024, after I had the experience of a pulmonary embolism followed by a pneumothorax. Some of these songs are about that and reinforced my thoughts on certain topics. Most of this album was recorded in 2024, but it lagged into 2025 and wrapped up in January of 2026.
“I bounced back and forth on whether to give it a full band sound, or to make it sound how it might if I performed it live by myself. As you’ll hear, I went with the full band sound. It is a studio album, so if and when I play any of these live, it will be a different experience.
“Burnt Counters is a more personal album than others. My father passed away in November 2025, commemorated in Walk in the Woods with Dad. My wife, Lynda, provided lyrics for As I Stare. Roadblock is specifically about my health experiences in 2024. If I had ignored my body, I may not be here now.”
Slow Draw – Burnt Counters
Album out April 12th
Self-released (CD, Digital)
Hurst, Texas
Tracklist:
1. Entrances & Exits (5:18)
2. Crush (4:18)
3. Totems (8:05)
4. As I Stare (2:40)
5. Roadblock (5:03)
6. Escape (6:13)
7. Walk in the Woods with Dad (4:22)
8. Burnt Counters (5:12)
Slow Draw is: Mark Kitchens
