Poguba – Noč EP

I’ve heard plenty of praise for Croatia’s Indikator B and their second EP, which was featured in Eric’s picks of notable 7-inches from the first half of 2026 here at DIY Conspiracy. Now, Autsajder Produkcija strikes again with another ex-Yugo band that sounds like it came straight out of an ’80s time capsule. Back in the ’80s, Ljubljana had its own hardcore punk scene with bands like U.B.R., Tožibabe, Odpadki Civilizacije, and Quod Massacre. These bands didn’t all sound the same and borrowed from many different approaches, but they all carried their own distinct identity, as you can hear on the classic compilations and demo tapes from that era.

I’m not sure about the age of the people playing in Poguba, but one thing is certain: they know their heritage and know how to channel that classic style, whether it’s ex-Yugo, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish, or Finnish hardcore, without sounding like someone else or relying only on sheer speed and intensity.

The six tracks on this 7-inch are short, with nothing going above the two-minute mark, but there’s a lot of diversity and great songwriting among these otherwise rough punk tracks. As soon as the self-titled opener “Noč” (Night) starts, we’re met with thick bass and blown-out guitars, and when the vocals kick in, I’m reminded of ’80s bands from the north like Barn Av Regnbuen, Stengte Dører, and Bannlyst. But Noč doesn’t sound only like that. It adds some post-punk influence and borderline anthemic melody on “Hočm bit str” (I Wanna Be Old), while “Maximum Rokenrol” (Maximum Rock’n’Roll) turns into a stop-and-go dirge, with its repeated line about barely waiting to die. That’s definitely the track that stands out the most.

Lyrically, Noč is just as cold, sour, and direct as the music itself. The title track sets the mood with a simple image of permanent night, darkness, and exhaustion, while “Darila” (Gifts) offers a nihilistic view of holiday shopping malls and consumerist hysteria. There’s a bit of bleak humor running through these songs too, with “Tank” (Tank) being a prime example of the simplest geopolitical commentary possible, reducing power struggles to “I have a tank, you don’t, so I’m right.” The simple genius of “Maximum Rokenrol” pushes the whole thing into absurdist self-negation, before “Lublana” (Ljubljana) closes the EP with a dirty, unsentimental walk through the Slovenian capital. As a tourist, I’ve always found Ljubljana really nice, but in this song the city stinks, it’s full of trash, cops, and people left to starve on the streets.

The artwork, which recalls those old ’80s Ljubljana Hard-Core tapes, was done by Bodež, the same person who also did the artwork for Indikator B. And while there are more similarities than differences between these two great current bands, I’d say I like Poguba even more. This is a brilliant take on an old sound, and I think classic ex-Yugo hardcore has never sounded this good from a “modern” band.