James Massiah, talking about the collaboration, said, "Love working with HAAi, always grateful when an artist I respect finds a new way to present my voice"
The forthcoming album features several collaborators, each expanding the community that HAAi treasures. ‘I Wanna Feel Like Someone’ features James Massiah, who also collaborated on her previous album HUMANiSE. She expands, “James Messiahs vocals are an important anchor in the song and give it a moment to breathe in amongst the textural heaviness.”
DIGITiSE was originally planned to extend the world of 2025’s album HUMANiSE, but it soon evolved into something so much bigger. While immersed in the production for DIGITiSE HAAi felt that these new tracks emerging had their own heartbeat, and she soon expanded the project into a stand-alone album that further showcases this indomitable artist. Describing the album as its predecessor’s “bigger, ravey sibling”, she goes on to explain that “DIGITiSE holds the hand of HUMANiSE and walks it to the club”.
“I’ve spent so many hours in clubs - on the dance floor and in the booth – and I really wanted to put that into this new album” explains HAAi and DIGITiSE takes us on a genre-defying dancefloor trip, the kind that HAAi has become revered for.
The album expands HAAi’s community bringing in new collaborators Echonomist and Skybreak plus Cantoalegre, a children’s choir from Medellin, Colombia - as well as artists she’s worked with previously - Pat Alvarez, ILA, James Massiah and Kaiden Ford.
DIGITiSE continues to explore what it means to be human in an increasingly digital world. The pace of AI and technology, the division this is causing and the impact felt by many has only increased in relevance since the 2025 release. One antidote to this, for her, has always been to gather people in a room or on a dancefloor to feel community and unity, something she vehemently champions and nurtures throughout her work. DIGITiSE opens up to this spirit of community: from the collaborators on the album - who all represent unique and different voices in dance music, to the team who created the visuals led by Martin Falck (Fever Ray / The Knife / Icona Pop), a playful and camp counterbalance to the dystopia of HUMANiSE, and the live production team that brought new dimensions to the album on the stage, they have all helped usher us into HAAi’s vivid welcoming world.
HAAi, who was Beatport’s Artist of the Month in June, has been weaving elements of the new album into her DJ sets. The album was designed to be played out and seeing audience reactions in real time allowed her to refine breakdowns, tighten grooves and feel the physical response on the dancefloor. A series of intimate headline shows at the Courtyard Theatre, followed by a performance at the Royal Albert Hall earlier this year also invited audiences in to the DIGITiSE world early. These rare live performances, which will continue into 2026, have been designed to create intimate and immersive spaces where the lighting – designed by lighting engineer Belinda Best – works with the environment to physically draw you into the performance.
The album came together while HAAi was on the road for her intense DJ schedule. She expands, ‘I Wanna Feel Like Someone (feat. James Massiah)’ nods to those peak time moments on the dance floor, and, she smiles, “it pushes the elements that I love most in dance music, bass and frequency, and ties it together with Motorik rhythms”; while ‘Talking Walls’ (feat. Skybreak and Cantoalegre) is a sonic journey through some of the sounds and influences that have opened up to her from playing DJ sets. The track showcases both HAAi and Skybreak’s sonic worlds and the addition of a choir – Cantoalegre Colombian children’s choir – is reminiscent of the choirs that appear on the previous album, a thread that brings deep emotion to the track. “It’s one to hug your mates to at the festival.”
DIGITiSE picks up where HUMANiSE left of - quite literally: the last track of HUMANiSE fades out with the choir, which picks up again on the opening track of DIGITiSE before we hit the dance floor. Talking about the album, she explains, “DIGITiSE was created with intention: I wanted to make music I could play when I DJ. I wanted it to sonically spread across multiple lanes in the way I would play an all night long set.”
DIGITiSE is released by Mute on 9 October 2026 on vinyl, CD and digitally
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