Tronics

Active between 1979 and 1984, Tronics was the mostly solo vehicle for the inner workings of London artist Ziro Baby. Baby started out in Star Dogs, a group of kids said to be somewhere between a glam band and a street gang. Star Dogs failed to achieve much and at 16, Baby formed the Tronics, a strange hybrid of brittle punk and insular acoustic pop sounds. Purely self-sufficient, Baby started Alien Records to distribute Tronics sounds, self-releasing two singles: "Favorite Girls"/"Suzie" and "Time Off"/"Goodbye." In 1981, Baby released the Shark F***s 7" as well as what would be Tronics' sole LP release Love Backed by Force. 1981 also saw several cassette releases from the band, including What's the Hubbub Bubb, which would be re-released on CD by Wrench Records in 2001. Tronics also released a self-titled mini-album and another single before dissolving completely in 1984. As the years wore on, Tronics records became sought-after commodities by punk collectors. Apart from the Wrench Records reissue, New York indie label What's Your Rupture? reissued both the Shark F***s 7" and Love Backed by Force in 2012. After his time in the Tronics, Ziro Baby would later change his name to Zarjaz and continue to register on the periphery of fringe culture as a visual artist. He was briefly a member of Sigue Sigue Sputnik and remained actively practicing music while also working in design.