The Dance-Floor Energy of HAAi’s “DIGITiSE”
HAAi is marking the release of her new album, “DIGITiSE,” with a 10-hour set at Refuge in Brooklyn on October 18. Released via Mute, the record expands on the ideas introduced on “HUMANiSE” while taking them into a new setting shaped by HAAi’s experience behind the decks.
“HUMANiSE” gave her voice and personal experiences more room. The idea for that record emerged in part while HAAi and Jon Hopkins were using a program with a feature called “Humanize,” designed to make digitally processed sounds feel more natural and human. The idea of a machine being used to make music sound more human became part of the album’s broader exploration of the relationship between technology and humanity. That contradiction is still present on “DIGITiSE.”
“‘DIGITiSE’ holds the hand of ‘HUMANiSE’ and walks it to the club. Like a ravey big sister. This album is my nod of gratitude to the dance floor and the life it’s given me,” she wrote in a recent Instagram post.
HAAi wanted to make songs she could play in her own sets. So, while working on the album, she tested them in clubs, listened to how audiences responded, and made adjustments after those nights.
“DIGITiSE,” the title track featuring Pat Alvarez, draws on the dance floor as a space for connection and belonging. Directed by Martin Falck, the visualizer places HAAi in an office setting filled with crooked ties and sharp digital cuts, creating a playful visual language that reflects the album’s interest in technology, automation, and the boundary between human experience and machines.
Watch HERE
“Ignition,” with Echonomist, picks up elements of “Go,” a track from “HUMANiSE.” On “I Wanna Feel Like Someone,” she focuses on the bass and the rhythms of a set’s most intense moments.
Watched HERE
“HUMANiSE” ends with a choir, and “DIGITiSE” opens with that same sound. Choirs also appear on “Talking Walls,” a collaboration with Skybreak and Cantoalegre, a children’s choir from Medellín.
“DIGITiSE” gives HAAi a space to take the ideas that shaped “HUMANiSE” into the environment where she has spent so much of her career. Built around movement, physical response, and the exchange between DJ and audience, the album turns that experience into its own musical language while leaving room for the unpredictability of an all-night set.
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Photo credit: Lamia Karic
