HAAi has always moved in orbit around the rave’s beating heart — a place where repetition meets revelation. But on her newly announced album Humanise, set to arrive October 10 via Mute, she’s coming in for a landing. The first single, “Satellite,” signals a shift: it’s a tether to the people who keep her grounded while she continues to explore the outer reaches of electronic sound.
Let’s be clear: HAAi knows how to build a track that vibrates in your chest. If Baby, We’re Ascending was an exercise in sonic levitation, then Humanise looks like it wants to reintroduce gravity — not to weigh you down, but to remind you of the power of connection. “Satellite,” featuring Jon Hopkins, Obi Franky, ILĀ, and the TRANS VOICES choir, is less a banger than it is a broadcast — an emotional communiqué transmitted in shimmering glitches and layered vocals. There’s a pulse, but it’s human first, electronic second.
What makes “Satellite” so compelling isn’t just its production (though yes, the Hopkins touch is unmistakable — crystalline and emotionally precise), but its intention. This isn’t just club music. It’s community music. It’s a track designed for collective catharsis, the kind you find in late-night dancefloors and early morning conversations. HAAi dedicates it — and the full album — to her trans and queer family and their allies, and that shows up not only in the collaborators, but in the song’s DNA. This is music made with care, not just flair.
The title Humanise is apt. It suggests a softening, a reconnection, maybe even a rebellion against the sterile, often isolating futurism that plagues a lot of electronic music. With this record, HAAi seems to be asking: What happens when machines amplify not just our rhythm, but our empathy?
If “Satellite” is any indicator, Humanise won’t be an escape from reality — it’ll be an invitation to live inside it more fully. Dance music has always been about community. HAAi just reminds us why that still matters.