Synopsis

Set against a grimy urban backdrop, "Fitzpleasure" unfolds as a series of unsettling black-and-white vignettes. Ordinary street scenes give way to uncanny bodies, contorting dancers, distorted faces, prosthetic limbs, and figures moving with unnatural precision. The video avoids a conventional narrative, creating a world that feels both familiar and grotesquely altered. Its fragmented imagery matches the song's abrasive rhythm and cryptic lyrics, leaving the viewer with an atmosphere of menace, disorientation, and dark absurdity.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was released in November 2012, following alt-J's breakthrough debut album, "An Awesome Wave."

• Its black-and-white photography and deliberately rough urban setting contrast with the song's intricate electronic textures, giving the clip a grimy, almost nightmarish character.

• The strange figures include highly flexible dancers, basketball players with prosthetic limbs, and an elderly man whose face appears on both sides of his head. Natural-looking visual effects make the distortions feel unsettling rather than overtly fantastical.

• "Fitzpleasure" draws on Hubert Selby Jr.'s novel "Last Exit to Brooklyn," specifically the chapter centered on the prostitute Tralala. The video does not directly recreate the episode, instead translating its disturbing mood into surreal physical imagery.

• A separate art video was created through French production company Cosa in collaboration with Belgian artist Wim Delvoye. It featured performer Tim Steiner, whose back had been tattooed by Delvoye as a living artwork.

• The Cosa version was shot in a Paris studio in one day and completed after approximately two weeks of post-production.

• The song later appeared in a bondage-themed video interlude during Miley Cyrus' 2014 Bangerz Tour, bringing the track a notable second life outside alt-J's own visual work.