Jarvis is alive and well… kind of.

That Jarvis Cocker has decamped to Paris with his lady and their newborn is no indication that Britain's favourite lanky troublemaker hankering for a cessation of musical activities. Indeed, seven months on from Pulp's supposed last ever live show at the Auto festival in Rotherham, Cocker's much loved pop presence again invades the public consciousness. Primarily with Relaxed Muscle (his perversely brooding electro rock project, alongside Fat Truckers and National Bandit colluder Jason Buckle), as well as The Nu Forest with indie stalwarts The Pastels. He’s also contributed vocals to “bastard pop” king Richard X’s debut album.

First unleashed on an unsuspecting audience last November, Relaxed Muscle played support to Jarvis’ hero Lee Hazlewood at the Royal Festival Hall, and appeared on stage more ramshackle than the Happy Mondays, and equally as surreal. Since then, Cocker has infused Relaxed Muscle with the myth of Darren Spooner: his down-at-heel alter ego - a skeletally painted pop anomaly who brings you, listener, “the sound of young Doncaster”.

A twisted piss-take, perhaps, of Fischerspooner’s Casey Spooner, Cocker’s working men’s club style response to overblown electroclash superstardom bites hard. Darren Spooner's supposed anonymity, however, has long been rumbled. Despite holding his phone interviews through Dalek-style computer voice manipulators, even The Sun knows that Spooner is Cocker, making the whole disguise somewhat of a damp squib.

Relaxed Muscle was hatched in the basement of Cocker's former home in Shoreditch, where the surroundings – “there were maggots under t’ carpets” (Jarvis) – made for a dark, comedic electro rock sound.

Fatherhood and Relaxed Muscle aside, Cocker now lends his vocal panache to esteemed indie heroes The Pastels, too, under the guise The Nu Forest – the outfit’s new single, I Picked A Flower, being a joyous ode to straying from the path of fidelity. I Picked A Flower also appears on the soundtrack to David Mackenzie's recently released film The Last Great Wilderness.

One could be excused for thinking that these days Jarvis Cocker is spreading himself a bit too thinly, but then hasn’t he always? Pun intended. Stuart Turnbull 04 July 03

Relaxed Muscle - Billy Jack/Sexualized, released 28 July 03 on Rough Trade.

Nu Forest - Picked A Flower, released 14 July 03 on Geographic.

useful links: www.roughtrade.com