Faux Real’s self-directed video is an education in being truly, authentically weird. 

Second Sweat is the debut single and video by Elliott and Virgile Arndt, the elusive Franco-American duo Faux Real. They seemed to arrive overnight with a fully-realised identity, gaining a fanbase for their jaunty aesthetic - described astutely by one journalist as “cowboys from a Stanley Kubrick Film”. All this fanfare without actually releasing any music. Until now. Well, the faith placed in them was not unfounded.

Faux Real are impossible not to look at. All they need to do to command your attention for four minutes is prance, thrust and pose in a dirty studio. It’s like catching Bowie and Jagger dancing in a bedroom when they assumed nobody was around. In fact, watching Second Sweat, you get a sense of what the video for Dancing in the Street might have looked like - had nobody from the label been around to say: “Could you maybe reign it in a bit for this one boys?”

This is not Elliot Arndt’s first time directing. As well as moonlighting for the band Vanishing Twin, he’s directed promos for Alaskalaska and Cristobal & The Sea. The 16mm photography, by frequent collaborator Joe Gainsborough, is reliably vibrant.