Everything about Nene H reeks of the unexpected. Whether she’s sprinkling trap into a peak-time techno set, or obliterating Berghain in her bridal gown—just when you think you’ve managed to box Beste Aydin Muasya in, she throws a curveball that hits you square in the face. In the nine years since relocating to Berlin, the Turkish-born DJ has become a powerhouse of the city’s evolving underground identity—blazing a trail for SWANA, Muslim, queer, and female representation in a scene which has historically overlooked them. Her transcendental sets are the result of an all-consuming infatuation with music, built upon the foundations of the Azerbaijani and Turkish sounds she grew up on, and filtered through the prodigal prowess for classical piano she honed at Stuttgart’s State Conservatory. Serving up truculent techno, Turkish-German Hip-Hop, and lashings of booty-bouncing ghetto-house, she demonstrates an inexplicable aptitude for genre-jumping, and makes it make sense. But however eclectic Nene H’s sonic identity, her motives are unwavering. Her presence is unapologetic, and her uncompromising commitment to uplifting marginalised communities in club culture persists throughout each of her endeavours. With Sirän—the Istanbul-based collective she co-founded in 2022—Aydin hosts parties and workshops that centre the city’s QTBIPOC community, in an ongoing effort to nurture its homegrown scene. In addition to regular appearances in Berlin—including her monumental CTM performance conceived with The National Choir of Georgia and two emotional live shows at Atonal—Nene H is also hurtling through the international club and festival circuit, tearing through Tbilisi’s Bassiani, Paris’ Myst, and Kyiv’s ∄ (K41), and maintaining a residency at Endurance in Copenhagen. As a producer, she boasts a back-catalogue of releases with Standard Deviation, Intrepid Skin and Incienso—the latter home to the irrevocably intimate album Ali علي, her cathartic expression of grief and healing—and is about to be at the helm of her own forthcoming imprint. She may be unpredictable, but one thing is for certain: With every venture she sets her mind to, Nene H is invigorating the underground with ass-shaking optimism.