Live Review: JATA ‘Drowning In Your Arms’ (Official Video)

German artist JATA makes an assured mark on the electronic indie scene with his second ever track and music video, ‘Drowning In Your Arms’.

German artist JATA makes an assured mark on the electronic indie scene with his second ever track and music video, ‘Drowning In Your Arms’.

The video is as captivating as the song is emotive. Simultaneously calm and manic, the bodies in the video gyrate to JATA’s shuddering synthy track.

The set is Tropicana themed, dimly lit with kitsch props. JATA turns to look directly down the lens as he sings ‘I see clearly who you are’. We’re both seduced and afraid, always a good mix. The video plays out against a dark blue club scene, with palm trees and glitter, a tinsel-clad stage and disco balls – a bit like if Father Christmas hosted his stag do at Sydney’s Goodgod club.

The video is sprinkled with imagery and references, for example as JATA warns us that ‘sleep is the cousin of death’ a haunting and expressionless golden theatre mask emerges from the ferns. The faceless body continues to grind and groove through the greenery as JATA dances slowly opposite the figure; they’re locked in with one another, a mysterious doppelganger or alter ego type of relationship, which culminates in JATA sitting in his disco throne, flanked by the two masked ravers.

JATA spins hip-hop tracks when DJing, studied Jazz at university, produces for other artists and looks kinda like Calvin Harris in the video. His vocals have a similar quality to the likes of Jack Garratt or Jamie Woon, his deployment of an organ is bold and haunting, and his beat production is minimal so as to let his vocals and bass lines take the limelight.

‘Drowning In Your Arms’ is taken from the debut album The Bells, which is out now and available on iTunes and Spotify.