- This ode to the three cities that shaped Nene H is carefully balanced, infusing the buoyant energy of '90s house and techno into her severe style.
- The first time I saw Nene H perform live nearly four years ago at Vancouver's New Forms Festival, it was a techno revelation. Her shoulders jerked from side to side and her face was glazed with meditative focus as her nimble fingers snapped over a mountain of silver equipment. The sounds that came from these slight movements were militant, whipping the lithe bodies on the dance floor with punchy techno. She moved away from this style on her striking 2021 album Ali, a dark ambient-leaning tribute to her late father, but on her latest EP she releases three tracks that revive her roughneck sound.
Trifecta is a tribute to three cities that have shaped Nene H as an artist: Istanbul (her birthplace), Berlin (her current home base) and Copenhagen. The energy she unleashes across these tracks is fast-paced and incandescent. Some harder strains of techno might mystify nonbelievers with bass that slams like dead weight, or vocals that come off monotonous and predictable. Nene H, on the contrary, makes techno that sounds carefully built—the kicks are heavy, but also carry a delicate bounce, while the simplest synth leads add to an irresistible forward motion.
This balance is written all over the EP's closer, "Hold Ud, Skat!" Dedicated to Copenhagen, a city fondly described as one "that adopted the lost child in Nene H" in the record's press release, the synthline jitters away like the body adjusting to a shot of Red Bull, and a delayed, distorted vocal floats by intermittently. On "Ring The Sirän," an ode to Istanbul, a chorus of ghastly wails surfaces from industrial-strength drums and a muffled vocal that sounds like it's spitting directly at you.
The best moments of Trifecta arrive in "Fukken Lie," a track devoted to Berlin, which has been Nene's home for the past nine years. She partners up with fellow Berlin resident Nik Mantilla here, drawing from memories of mundane club conversation—inquiries like "are you straight?", "is that water?" Or the indulgent complaint, "my feet huuurt," where you can practically hear the accompanying pout. Nene enhances this playfulness by incorporating the lightness of house—there's even a build-up of sweet, ascending chords that sound like they're filled with glittering stars. But on the kicker, Mantilla lends the track some techno grit with two unforgettable sentences that land smeared with cigarette smoke and amphetamines. "Remember when I said I was going to bed? That was a fucking lie."
Tracklist01. Ring The Sirän
02. Fukken Lie
03. Hold Ud, Skat!