Los Ángeles Negros emerged in Chile in the late 1960s playing a blend of bolero, psychedelic funk and rock guitar. This was their debut single.

In another life I would love to have been a musical director, choosing songs to feature in films and TV shows. But I doubt I would have had the knowledge or inspiration to find this gem from Chile.

The song featured in the final episode of Industry, one of my favourite TV series, and sent me straight to Shazam – then off to dig deep for more by Los Ángeles Negros.

First of all, that’s not a bunch of black fellas from LA; it’s the Spanish for The Black Angels. And secondly, it’s not the very excellent group The Black Angels from Austin, Texas; though they both share a love of twangy guitars and psychedelia.

The Chilean band was formed back in 1968 by two teenage boys and a worker from their school and came to fame after recruiting a singer and winning a radio station’s talent contest, earning them the chance to go to Santiago to record for the first time.

This tune, Tú Y Tu Mirar… Yo Y Mi Canción (You And Your Gaze… Me And My Song) was the B-side of that debut single ¿Porqué Te Quiero? (Why Do I Love You?), released in 1969.

The three original members were inspired by The Beatles and other pop/rock bands, but the singer, Germaín de la Fuente, did not like the Fab Four at all and preferred his native boleros. 

As a result, they played a blend of boleros with psychedelic funk and rock guitar, forging a hybrid that became known as Balada rockmántica or Bolero-beat.

It proved to be hugely popular and the band were mobbed by young girls wherever they went, enjoying hit singles with romantic ballads like Pasión Y Vida, Mi Niña, and the comically overwrought Y Volveré:

The group left Chile in 1982 to settle in Mexico, splitting after the singer left to form his own group, Germaín y sus Ángeles Negros, while guitarist Mario Gutiérrez carried on under the old name.

Other members continued to perform variously as Los Ángeles de Chile and El Sonido de los Ángeles, interspersed with court battles to claim the name for themselves until they settled their differences and reunited in 2009 – though Gutiérrez refused to join them.

The original group has also been sampled by rappers including Jay Z and The Beastie Boys, and I’m guessing I’m not the only one to discover them through the inclusion of his song on the soundtrack of Industry.