London-based, Australian-born producer, songwriter, and DJ HAAi (Teneil Throssell) is returning with “Ignition (feat. Echonomist),” the latest single from her upcoming dancefloor-focused album, DIGITiSE. The new track arrives ahead of the album’s October 9, 2026 release on Mute and continues HAAi’s exploration of community, identity, and the freedom found on the dancefloor.
“Ignition (feat. Echonomist)” is a high-energy, crystalline production that gradually pushes listeners toward an intense four-to-the-floor experience. Created with Echonomist, the track combines driving broken-beat rhythms with an underlying sense of innocence, while its lyrics draw from a deeply personal part of HAAi’s story.
“‘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.”
For Echonomist, the collaboration developed naturally through a shared musical language.
“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.”
The track captures the broader purpose behind DIGITiSE, an album built specifically around the physical experience of playing and listening to dance music. HAAi explains, “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.”
That club experience is woven throughout the project, which takes listeners on a genre-defying journey inspired by the way HAAi approaches an all-night DJ set.
“Ignition (feat. Echonomist)” follows the album’s title track, which features longtime creative collaborator, producer, and songwriter Pat Alvarez, whom HAAi describes as “the nucleus of the whole album.”
Originally conceived as an extension of her 2025 album HUMANiSE, DIGITiSE gradually developed into a standalone project as HAAi discovered that the new material had its own identity. She describes it as her previous album’s “bigger, ravey sibling,” explaining that “DIGITiSE holds the hand of HUMANiSE and walks it to the club.”
The album expands HAAi’s creative community with new collaborators including Echonomist, Skybreak, and Cantoalegre, a children’s choir from Medellin, Colombia. It also reunites her with artists she has previously worked with, including Pat Alvarez, ILA, James Massiah, and Kaiden Ford.
At its core, DIGITiSE continues HAAi’s exploration of what it means to be human in an increasingly digital world. The rapid growth of AI and technology, along with the division and social impact surrounding those changes, has become even more relevant since the release of HUMANiSE. For HAAi, gathering people together in a room or on a dancefloor offers an important counterpoint, creating opportunities for connection and unity.
That sense of community extends beyond the music itself. The album’s visuals were created by a team led by Martin Falck, known for work with Fever Ray, The Knife, and Icona Pop. The playful and camp visual direction provides a contrast to the dystopian atmosphere of HUMANiSE, while HAAi’s live production team has helped translate the album into an immersive stage experience.
HAAi has already been testing the new material in her DJ sets, earning Beatport’s Artist of the Month recognition in June. Because DIGITiSE was created with live performance in mind, playing the tracks for audiences has allowed her to adjust breakdowns, tighten grooves, and respond to the physical reactions of the dancefloor.
A series of intimate headline shows at Courtyard Theatre, followed by a performance at Royal Albert Hall earlier this year, gave audiences an early introduction to the DIGITiSE world. Those rare live performances are set to continue into 2026, with lighting designed by engineer Belinda Best to work directly with the surrounding environment and draw audiences further into the performance.
The album also reflects HAAi’s life on the road and her experience playing extended DJ sets. “I Wanna Feel Like Someone (feat. James Massiah)” explores peak-time dancefloor energy through bass, frequency, and Motorik rhythms, while “Talking Walls (feat. Skybreak and Cantoalegre)” brings together sounds and influences HAAi encountered through her DJ sets.
The latter track also features Cantoalegre’s Colombian children’s choir, continuing the use of choirs that appeared on HUMANiSE and adding an emotional thread to the album. HAAi describes it as “one to hug your mates to at the festival.”
DIGITiSE literally picks up where HUMANiSE ends. The choir heard fading out at the conclusion of the previous album returns at the beginning of the new record before the music moves fully toward the dancefloor.
“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.”
With “Ignition (feat. Echonomist)” continuing that journey, HAAi is turning DIGITiSE into more than a follow-up album. It is a project built around movement, collaboration, identity, and the shared experience of being together on the dancefloor.
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