With prior NSFW music videos by Richard Kern and Megaforce, Is Tropical return with “Cruise Control”, self-directed by guitarist, keyboardist and visual alchemist, Simon Milner. Indicative of the band’s thematically and musically darker offering, Milner and fellow director Gareth Phillips’ intensely pulsating vision is the result of a collaboration with choreographer Navala Chaudhar and comes on the heels of a forthcoming album. Recorded on tour over five continents and released in five parts, Black Anything will be the genre-splicing provocateurs’ third LP and an artistic tribute to the continents that spawned it.

“Cruise Control” is a departure from the band's previous outings leaning on sexualized female subjects. How did the idea of a matriarchal future come about? 
Simon Milner: Richard Kern made a Sonic Youth video, we're all fans, and when he asked us to be in a room of naked girls we said yes. Truthfully it's not very us. We did invite male friends to also strip off on the shoot but they all got cold feet. I think a matriarchal future is a very possible outcome, plus there is so much kinetic energy in gyms and nightclubs that goes to waste.

What does going viral mean to the music?
SM: Going viral is always good. The Megaforce videos helped as we’ve never had a lot of money spent on advertising campaigns. We are in talks with Megaforce, as they're good friends, for another video, just as soon as they've finished the Rihanna one. 

What made you decide to record the album in five continents? 
SM: Recording studios can often be windowless basements that lack a creative vibe. Often we recorded outside for this album. In Spain we hired a villa in the middle of acres of lemon trees and tracked drums next to the pool. We recorded natural reverbs under the bridges in Central Park and the New York subway system. One track features a turnstile of a station in Mexico City. We like the bleed of people talking and a distant car in a track instead of a sterile studio sound with fake reverbs.