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One of the most welcome developments on the Central Oregon music scene in 2012 was the surge in events put on by Slipmat Science, a collective of local DJs and electronic music heads who’ve been throwing shows ’round here for a decade.

For years, Slipmat’s parties featured mid-profile DJs, and the locations of those parties sometimes shifted around, giving them an under-the-radar feel. But over the past year, the crew brought its events into the heart of Bend — Midtown Ballroom, Century Center — and headlined them with legitimately big names like Beats Antique, Tipper, Papadosio, Filastine and Heyoka. (It helps that, with the explosion of electronic dance music worldwide, big-name DJs are now huge, arena-packing superstars and the mid-profile artists are still drawing record numbers.)

On Saturday night, Slipmat will kick off another season of shows with a pioneer of electronic music: DJ Z-Trip, the mashup master who was blending disparate sounds — Rush vs. the Beastie Boys, Pat Benatar vs. The Pharcyde — back before the new generation of song-splicers had even fired up their first laptops.

These days, Z-Trip — aka Zach Sciacca — hops all over the planet to play for thousands of people per night, while cranking out albums, mixtapes and singles in between gigs. His most recent project, a collaborative mixtape with rapper Talib Kweli (among others) called “Attack the Block,” came out in September.

The best way to keep up with the prolific Z-Trip is at his website, www.djztrip.com. And the best way to keep up with Slipmat Science is at www .slipmatscience.com or www .facebook.com/slipmatscience. Upcoming Slipmat events include Blackalicious on Dec. 14, a New Year’s Eve party with NastyNasty and Samples, OTT in February and the return of Papadosio in April.

RoboLiquidPop, with Z-Trip, DJ Wicked, Woody McBride, Mosley Wotta, Alatin and Christafari; 9 p.m. Saturday, doors open 8 p.m.; $20, available at the door; Domino Room, 51 N.W. Greenwood Ave., Bend; www.slipmat science.com.