A hacked Game Boy, compliment battles, video games and Mr Blobby: the rise of UK nerdcore

The geekiest edge of the British music underground is fuelled by the 90s, featuring a ZX Spectrum Noel Edmonds, a Blobby-themed grindcore band, and a lady who performs the script to Theme Hospital

We’ve had live jazz bands playing Mario Kart, and a full orchestra rendition of Sonic. But there’s a whole subgenre of video game music artists who’d happily describe their sound as even more nerdy. “Nerdcore has been around for 25 years. It’s hip-hop about nerdy subjects, predominantly video games,” says 41-year-old Nick Box from Blackpool. Box has been in all sorts of “weird silly bands” such as electronic horror punk band Hot Pink Sewage, where “all I did was dress as a gimp and push play on the backing track”. He now performs solo as Cliff Glitchard and it’s even weirder than you think.

“It’s all set against a backdrop of a ZX Spectrum running an AI clone of 90s TV presenter Noel Edmonds,” he “explains”. “The show starts with the Spectrum loading screen, then a pixelated Edmonds tells the crowd he’s responsible for every celebrity death, political decision and major disaster of the last 40 years. I run around shouting about crap celebrities and end up shagging Mr Blobby on stage.”