Big Black Delta is an electronic solo project of Jonathan Bates, frontman for Los Angeles indie rockers Mellowdrone. His music under the BBD moniker is equally influenced by hook-heavy '80s new wave and synthesizer-driven film soundtracks. The project's first output arrived in 2011 with BBDLP1, which was later refreshed on 2013's Big Black Delta. The independently released Trágame Tierra was issued in 2016, followed by the instrumental WHORU812 in 2017. After experiencing a pop culture resurgence in the late 2010s through the inclusion of early tracks "Huggin & Kissin" and "Capsize" to The Sinner, Bates released his fourth album, 4, in 2020.

The project began when Mellowdrone decided to take an extended break in 2010 after a decade of recording and touring, and Bates found himself questioning whether life in a band was for him after all. As well as briefly playing in M83 on tour, Bates worked as delivery man and sound technician, before his friend and former Nine Inch Nails member Alessandro Cortini introduced him to the benefits of creating music on a laptop. Bates became engrossed and it was during an intense period of creativity that Big Black Delta was born. Harnessing guitars and warped electronics to create a Wall of Sound, Big Black Delta -- also the term used to describe a man-made UFO -- released a free EP titled BBDEP1 in 2010. He also collaborated with War Widow on a cover of Cheap Trick's "He's a Whore." Debut full-length BBDLP1 appeared on Coming Home Records in 2011. During the same year, Big Black Delta remixed M83's hit single "Midnight City," and the two acts teamed up to remix "Fall" from Daft Punk's Tron: Legacy soundtrack. Singles If***ingloveyou and Betamax followed in 2012 through Bates' own Master of Bates label, which issued a reconfigured, self-titled version of Big Black Delta's debut album in the spring of 2013. BBD kept busy working on new material, as well as remixing songs by Puscifer, Jaga Jazzist, and Phases.

In 2015, Big Black Delta released new singles "It's OK" and "RCVR," the latter featuring '80s teen pop star Debbie Gibson. Both tracks landed on 2016's full-length Trágame Tierra, which also featured the Kimbra collaboration "Bitten by the Apple." The following year, in addition to releasing the moody instrumental set WHORU812, BBD's debut returned to the spotlight after the tracks "Huggin & Kissin" and "Capsize" were featured prominently in the first season of the television drama The Sinner. After a few dormant years, Bates returned in 2020 with the project's fourth LP, 4, which injected heavy metal riffs into his usual synth approach. Appropriately, he also joined the soundtrack to Bill Ted Face the Music, contributing a pair of era-appropriate synth-and-guitar tracks. ~ Daniel Clancy & Neil Z. Yeung, Rovi