HAAi doesn't do sequels the easy way. A year after "HUMANiSE" cast a wary eye on AI and digital life, the London-based Australian producer is back on Mute with "DIGITiSE," out October 9, and she's dragged the same anxieties onto the dancefloor instead of leaving them in the headphones.
HAAi's pitch for the record is specific: ten tracks built from what she learned playing extended club sets rather than from a studio brief. The title track, out now and featuring longtime collaborator Pat Alvarez, is the clearest statement of intent, sitting somewhere between house, broken bass and the kind of left-field club music HAAi has built a reputation on since her Boiler Room breakout years.
Why does the cast list matter here?
This is where "DIGITiSE" earns its keep as a story, not just a release. Alongside returning names like Pat Alvarez, ILA and Kaiden Ford, HAAi brought in Echonomist and Skybreak as new collaborators, poet and musician James Massiah for spoken word, and, most strikingly, Cantoalegre, a children's choir from Medellin, Colombia. That choir isn't a guest feature bolted on for colour: the same recording that closed out "HUMANiSE" reappears to open "DIGITiSE" on a track called "RE-HUMANiSE," making the two albums read as one continuous argument rather than an album and its remix cousin.
"DIGITiSE" treats the dancefloor itself as the antidote to the division AI and technology create, HAAi has said of the record's concept.
Is this just "HUMANiSE" with a beat added?
No, and that distinction is the whole premise. "HUMANiSE" was the more dystopian, textural record. "DIGITiSE" keeps the theme, human connection against algorithmic flattening, but reroutes it through motorik rhythm and rave pressure, tracks like "Ignition" (featuring Echonomist) and "I Wanna Feel Like Someone" (featuring James Massiah) are built for a room, not a pair of headphones. Even the sleeve reflects the shift: where "HUMANiSE"'s artwork leaned bleak, "DIGITiSE" was designed by Martin Falck, known for sleeves for Fever Ray, The Knife and Icona Pop, and reads as a far more playful counterpoint.
What we think
A lot of albums claim to be "about AI" right now because it's the easiest hook in the press release. HAAi's version is more convincing because the record argues against the theme with its own structure: instead of retreating into isolation, she filled the tracklist with more collaborators than most producers use in three albums, Colombian children included. That's a genuine thesis, not a marketing line.
Why it matters
HAAi is one of the few producers who moved from Boiler Room internet fame to a two-album deal on a label with Mute's pedigree without losing credibility on either side, and a deliberately maximalist, club-ready sophomore record from her is a real signal for where left-field tech house is heading next.
