Magazine, LondonThom Yorke’s latest Radiohead spin-off, alongside Jonny Greenwood and Tom Skinner, excels the more it explores new territory in a thrilling frenzy of analogue synths and percussion
![The Smile review – Yorke and Greenwood stay close to the mothership](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/bc5ad2dd56208655cb54b09ba2cdd5988dc88670/0_380_5694_3416/master/5694.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctcmV2aWV3LTQucG5n&enable=upscale&s=47db4192879458913da8fd8c06f62cdf)
In primates, what looks like a smile usually signifies submission. In humans, it’s more complicated.
“There is a smile of love and there is a smile of deceit,” intones a disembodied voice –
Actor Cillian Murphy’s – at the start of the third live performance in a series by the Smile, the latest band headed up by Thom Yorke of Radiohead. The power trio is completed by fellow ’Head Jonny Greenwood, latter-day composer of film soundtracks, and drummer Tom Skinner of jazz activists Sons of Kemet. (Producer Nigel Godrich is a silent partner.) It’s a sunny January morning outside, contrasting with the dimly lit, alternative Sunday service indoors, in which a churchy Fender Rhodes features. The band have snuck a few hours’ kip after their earlier 11pm and 1am live streams. The only sign that they are not fresh as daisies is one slight mistake on one song.