Photos: HAAi to Play 10-Hour Marathon Set at Refuge for DIGITiSE
The London-based, Australian-born DJ follows dates at iii Points Miami and The Ground at Club Space.
London-based, Australian-born producer, songwriter and DJ HAAi (aka Teneil Throssell) has shared a new single, 'Ignition (feat Echonomist),' the latest to be taken from her dancefloor-focused album, DIGITiSE, out on October 9, 2026 on Mute.
'Ignition (feat. Echonomist)' is a high energy crystalline track that steers the listener into an intense four-to-the-floor banger.
On the track HAAi shares, ''Ignition' is a collaboration with Echonomist, someone whose music has shaped many of my sets since I started touring. Sonically, it's a driving broken beat track that maintains a lot of innocence. Lyrically, it is deeply personal: documenting my coming-of-age as a queer kid in a small town, desperate to leave.
In the true spirit of DIGITiSE, 'Ignition' serves as a sequel to Go!, from my previous album HUMANiSE. Both tracks are so important to the storytelling of the albums, I'm glad to be able to take it to the place we feel the most free, the dance floor.'
Talking about the track, Echonomist explains, 'From the moment HAAi and I started talking, we connected through music in a really genuine way. It didn't take long to realize we shared a similar musical language, and that made this collaboration feel incredibly natural. She reminded me of how much I love breaks, and that inspiration became the starting point.'
'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.
'Ignition (feat. Echonomist)' follows the release of the title track, featuring long time creative comrade, producer and songwriter Pat Alvarez, described by HAAi as 'the nucleus of the whole album.'
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.'
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 audiences 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 off - quite literally: the last track of HUMANiSE fades out with the choir, which picks up again on the opening track of DIGITiSE before the dance floor kicks in. 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 October 9, 2026 on vinyl, CD and digitally.
Tracklist
RE-HUMANiSE (feat. Kaiden Ford and ILA)
Printerlude
Ignition (feat. Echonomist)
Depth Perception
DIGITiSE (feat. Pat Alvarez)
Technology
HUMANiSE Radio
THANK U
I Wanna Feel Like Someone (feat. James Massiah)
Talking Walls (feat. Skybreak and Cantoalegre)
HAAi DJ Dates
1 August - Herrensauna x Knit @ TILLATEC, Amsterdam (NL)
2 August - Pride On The Park @ Preston Road, Brighton (UK)
6 August – World Pride Amsterdam at Museumplein, Amsterdam (NL)
7 August - CRX Festival, Grottaglie (TA), Italy (IT)
8 August - Maiden Voyage Festival @ Burgess Park, London (UK)
12 August - Sziget Festival, Budapest (HU)
14 August - Dom Dolla support b2b DJ Seinfeld, Hi Ibiza (ES)
15 August - WeCanDance, Zeebrugge (BE)
30 August - Are You Affiliated @ King Street Social Club, North Shields (UK)
19 September - Bugged Out, Ibiza (ES)
26 September - b2b DJ Tennis, Place Simon Bolivar, Brussels (BE)
30 September - b2b Sally C, Mau P @ Pacha, Ibiza (ES)
10 October - IPC curates b2b with DJ Seinfeld The Warehouse Project, Manchester (UK)
16 October - Dom Dolla support b2b DJ Seinfeld @ Cow Palace, San Francisco CA (US)
17 October - iiiPoints Festival, Miami, Florida (US)
23 October - b2b Adiel, Audio Obscura x Raw Factory, Amsterdam, (NL)
18 December - b2b Special Request, Mastery x Glade @ Prospect, Bristol (UK)
About HAAi
HUMANiSE – one of Rough Trade, Disco Pogo and Resident's Albums of the Year 2025 – was described by The Quietus as 'transcendent' and by DJ Magazine as '…organic and synthetic sounds working in beautiful unison.' The album includes the singles 'Satellite' (feat. Jon Hopkins & Obi Franky & ILĀ & TRANS VOICES), 'Can't Stand To Lose,' and 'Stitches,' all A-listed by BBC Radio 6 Music, plus the 6 Music B-listed 'Hey!', and her collaboration with KAM-BU, 'Shapeshift,' which was performed on Later… with Jools Holland.
An accompanying film, HUMANiSE (live album performance, from Drumsheds), by New Vision Originals captured a performance that unfolded inside a meticulously crafted installation of a '90s office: a time capsule lined with ring binders, Rolodexes, fax machines, reams of A4 paper, and landline telephones - reimagined within the cavernous shell of London's Drumsheds. The set becomes a surreal workplace with HAAi bringing the conceptual world of the album to life alongside album collaborators Jon Hopkins, Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip), Obi Franky, KAM-BU, TRANS VOICES, and the poet Kaiden Ford. She also popped into the DJ Magazine studios to DJ an hour of bangers.
Outside of her own productions, HAAi is known for her dynamic, tempo-shifting DJ sets. Recent DJ sets include Coachella, Movement, Glastonbury (her Glastonbury B2B with Romy that went out on BBC Radio 1 featured the premiere of Romy's remix of 'Stitches'), Body Movements. 2025 saw her helming UNiSON, her community-focussed night in London that she founded in 2024, as well as dropping in on Glamcult TV to record an intimate version of 'Can't Stand To Lose.' Recent remixes have included Fred again.., Kylie Minogue and Nina Simone.
In 2023 she released her acclaimed DJ-Kicks compilation, which RA described as 'a thrillingly eclectic journey through sound, where industrial beats meet warm melodies with finesse.' The compilation - which includes a new version of her collaboration with Jon Hopkins titled 'Always Ascending' - came soon after her debut album, Baby, We're Ascending, which opened up her boundary pushing blend of psychedelia, techno and powerful beats to new avenues, prompting the likes of Dazed to say, '[HAAi] transcends to new planes of existence on her full-length debut' and NME to praise her 'high-flying, vibrant electronic wonderland.' 2023 also saw the release of 'Lights Out,' her collaboration with Fred again.. and Romy; a single that solidified HAAi's place at the forefront of electronic music.
Pat Alvarez is a producer and songwriter who has been writing and producing since he was a teenager in Buenos Aires, before going on to study Music Production and Audio Engineering at Tecson (BA) and Berklee College of Music Online. His writing and production portfolio includes The Blessed Madonna, Rose Gray, HAAi, Jelani Blackman, Uffie, Jon Hopkins, Adiel, Alexis Taylor and Mette. With multi-instrumentalist skills which sit alongside his production abilities in dance music, his portfolio also extends to pop, hip hop, alternative rock and experimental music. He is one half of duo 'Solid Wall' alongside Lucas Vedel.
Greek maestro Echonomist (real name Petros Manganaris) was born and raised in Thessaloniki, Greece, a hub for electronic music in the Mediterranean nation. His prolific output - as a producer, DJ, solo artist and collaborator - has seen him releasing albums with his band (gaining considerable fame in the Greek electronic music scene), performing as a sought after DJ, releasing his solo project on labels such as Resopal, Upon You Records, Time Has Changed, and Dessous Recordings. At the heart of his love for electronic music is drum'n'bass, and he finds joy in pads and chords, transcendent atmospheres, waves of cosmic, interstellar synth work and music that transports listeners into different realms.
Photo Credit: Charlotte Marie Robinson
Photo Credit: Charlotte Marie Robinson
