When featured recently as MySpace’s Artist of the Week, IAMX were described as music to be experienced both aurally and visually. This was certainly true of tonight, the last date of their first UK tour: dizzying theatrics, bizarre projections and one fabulous hat made the whole event seem like standing in a sex-fetishist’s dream world. And the music’s not far off that either.

So what do you need to know? IAMX is the brainchild of Chris Corner, best known as the guitarist and later singer of electropop band Sneaker Pimps. 2004 saw the release of their first album Kiss and Swallow, and recently, second LP The Alternative made it’s way to UK and US iTunes. They’re huge in Germany. And they have a cracking list of cameo appearances. The only permanent member of the band is Corner, with past members including Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt of Mighty Boosh fame, Robots in Disguise (Sue Denim, Corner’s girlfriend, also guest-vocals on both albums), Nighty Night star Julia Davis, and James Cook, most famous for throwing a diva-strop on Channel 4’s mobileAct Unsigned with band Nemo.

Listening to IAMX, and watching them perform, is a highly sexual experience. With songs about male rape (You Stick It In Me), threesomes (Sailor), and the quite blatantly-titled Spit It Out, Corner sings with a dark passion in his voice that sounds like he is constantly on the brink of ecstasy. Impossibly thin and impish looking, he dresses in neo-Nazi leathers, tudor ruffs, top-hats and eccentric makeup, gyrating for his devoted audience, similarly dressed.

Despite never having a hit in the UK, IAMX have built up an impressive cult following, probably due to their links to The Mighty Boosh. This shows in their live performances, with crowds dancing wildly and screaming along to singles President and Skin Vision. The night’s atmosphere was accurately summed up with encore track Song Of Imaginary Beings, the highlight of IAMX’s second album. In the impressive finale, Corner begged his audience to “Beg for me, lie for me, burn for me, die for me.” This audience probably would have.