"A super-sexy pack of nerds who aren't afraid of being possessed, Linda Blair-style, by the music."

That's how Rufus Wainwright described The Guillemots when they toured with him last year, playing to the sort of 2,000-plus audiences generally withheld from artists who count typewriters and clothes pegs among their instrumentation.

Now the multinational four-piece have been voted one of the top five acts for 2006 in a BBC poll of DJs and critics.

As a mark of how far they've come since their last visit to Brighton, an image of a tubby little seabird is no longer the first thing you get when you Google the word guillemots.

"It's nice isn't it," agrees singer Fefe Dangerfield. "But we don't want to usurp the birds. They are the original guillemots, we know that."

The band's singer and keyboardist (and the one with the window frame around his neck in the photo), Dangerfield - not his real name, no, really - is responsible for many of The Guillemots' eccentricities.

It was he who introduced the "suitcases full of junk" into the musical proceedings and preferred them to appear "more like a circus line-up than a band".

And it is he who is currently being ransomed by a bonkers fan who has stolen the toy bird he used as a stage mascot and sends him photos of it lying in other people's beds.

"My ex-girlfriend made it for me," he says. "It was a hoopoe actually, not a guillemot. We keep losing things. We had a really nice Picasso painting that used to sit in front of my keyboard and someone's nicked that too."

Hailing variously from Birmingham, Canada, Brazil and the Scottish Highlands, The Guillemots have just released third single We're Here, an enticing blend of lush melody, off-kilter electronics and rococo orchestration.

And they're putting the final touches to their debut album, which promises to harness the classical training of Dangerfield and double bassist Aristazabal Hawkes, guitarist MC Lord MadRaO's grounding in Brazilian white noise, and percussionist Rican Caol's "deranged" view of rhythm. "I really like the way the band's structured," says Dangerfield.

"Everyone's pulling in completely different directions."

Incapable even of conducting a tour in a conventional manner, the band are currently running a pretty cool competition.

Before tonight's show they will perform a short acoustic set at Above Audio from 6pm. Take along your copy of We're Here for signing and you will be entered into a lottery, the winner receiving a Guillemots gig in their very own home.

"We'll even play in their toilet if that's what they want us to do," promises Dangerfield. "All we ask in return is some nice cheese."

Tickets cost £10 and £8. Starts at 8pm, call 01273 606906