The wait is over; amid a frenzy of hype, Spor’s debut LP (and return to the scene) was leaked last week. The man himself was prepared, bringing the official release via BitTorrent forward from the original March date to drop just a few hours after the leak.

So hype and drama surrounding the release aside, is it actually any good? Speaking as a long-time fan of the producer, I have to say that it is; while some of the grit of early productions like Dreadnought and Three Faces is lost in the ultra-precise engineering, there’s still plenty to enjoy here. Much of the album is taken up with neurofunk heavy hitters; Always Right Never Left, Blueroom, Full Colour and The Hole Where Your House Was will all be doing the damage on the dancefloor, and the build-ups and breakdowns still manage to get plenty of musicality into the compositions.

Elsewhere Spor explores a variety of styles; the hyper-neuro-pop of If You Cry, the epic vibes of Tasha Baxter voiced As I Need You and some lower tempo outings on Like Clockwork and Our Space. For me the album’s only real “miss” is the tedious rock crossover Empire, but fans of Hadouken might disagree here.

You can stream the whole album via Soundcloud below, and it’s available on a free/pay what you like basis via BitTorrent. We also learnt via Spor’s recent Reddit AMA that the album will be getting a vinyl release via Spor’s own Sotto Voce imprint, so watch out for that dropping sometime soon. If you’re craving more Spor check out his recent mix for Friction’s show on Radio 1, and look out for his UK tour hitting your town starting with Nottingham tonight!