15 electronic dance music shows playing metro Phoenix

There's no shortage of electronic-dance-music artists hitting metro Phoenix in the next two months. Here's a look at a handful of highlights, starting with what promises to be a great night of music when Porter Robinson brings his "Worlds" tour to Tempe's Marquee Theatre.

9/10: Porter Robinson

This is Robinson's first appearance in the Valley since the Sound Wave music festival last September. Rolling Stone magazine named him one of the 25 DJs that rule the earth and he's touring on a brilliant new album called "Worlds," on which the Chapel Hill, S.C., EDM producer appears to have taken the title of a track called "Sad Machine" as a statement of purpose. He sounds like the saddest machine alive on several of the album's strongest tracks.

Details: 9 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 10. Marquee Theatre, 730 N. Mill Ave., Tempe. $32. 480-829-0607, luckymanonline.com.

9/12: Paul Van Dyk

This German house-music superstar spent 15 years in the Top 10 of DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs list. The first DJ to be nominated for a Grammy (in 2003), he went on to win one in 2008 (as one of several artists featured on the "Dark Knight" soundtrack). Van Dyk's latest album, "Evolution," hit the clubs in 2012, boasting guest appearances by Austin Leeds, Johnny McDaid and Owl City's Adam Young. The star explained the title in an interview with Rolling Stone. "My music grows with me," he said. "It's kind of a logical progression. And obviously throughout the last three or four years of working on the album I learned a lot, saw a lot, had a lot of things that inspired me and that's all in the album."

Details: 9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 12. Maya Day + Night Club, 7333 E. Indian Plaza, Scottsdale. $15. mayaclubaz.com.

9/12: Mad Decent Block Party

The lineup for the Valley date of the huge touring EDM bash features Diplo, Big Gigantic, Flosstradamus, Zeds Dead, Strfkr, Cashmere Cat, Dillon Francis, and Thurz. A California-based producer/DJ, Diplo's many claims to fame include his pioneering work with M.I.A., his dancehall-flavored project Major Lazer and production work for everyone from Britney Spears ("Circus") to Usher (the transcendent "Climax") and Beyonce ("End of Time"). Round trip bus passes from ASU and UA are available.

Details: 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 12. Rawhide, 5700 W. North Loop Road, Chandler. $50. VIP $75. relentlessbeats.com.

9/14: The Chainsmokers

The New York duo of Andrew Taggart and Alex Pall are the evil masterminds behind this year's insanely popular dance jam "#SELFIE." An actual hit -- it peaked at No. 16 on the Hot 100 -- "#SELFIE" inspired the following words of praise and wisdom here at azcentral.com: "Does every generation need its own Moon Unit Zappa "Valley Girl"? It's hard to say. But Generation Selfie definitely does. And this is perfect." Their latest single is called "Kanye."

Details: 11 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 14. Maya Day + Night Club. 7333 E. Indian Plaza, Scottsdale. $20. mayaclubaz.com.

9/19: Cedric Gervais

Among the most popular resident DJs at Paris' Le Queen Club, Gervais moved to Miami Beach in 1998 (at 15), earning residencies at Crobar, Nikki Beach and, finally, the Club Space Terrace. His 2012 track "Molly" was a Top 5 U.K. dance hit and the following year he took Lana Del Rey to the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 -- No. 6, to be exact -- with a remix of "Summertime Sadness," a double-platinum success that also topped the U.K. dance charts and earned Gervais a Grammy.

Details: 9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 19. Maya Day + Night Club. 7333 E. Indian Plaza, Scottsdale. $15. mayaclubaz.com.

9/19: Eric Prydz

This Swedish DJ was in on the ground floor of Swedish House Mafia, who topped the U.S. dance charts with "Miami 2 Ibiza" in 2010, but he later bailed to do his own thing. He topped the charts all over Europe in 2004 with "Call on Me," which rode a sample of Steve Winwood's "Valerie" and a sexier-than-you'd imagine aerobics workout video to more than 58 million views on YouTube. His next big hit was "Proper Education," a remix of Pink Floyd's disco-flavored classic "Another Brick in the Wall, Part II" that took him to the top of Billboard's Hot Dance Airplay charts in 2007. And 2012's "Every Day" went Top 5 on the U.S. dance charts.

Details: 9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 19. The Pressroom, 441 W. Madison St., Phoenix. $27.50. 602-396-7136, thepressroomaz.com.

9/20: Oliver Heldens

Tiesto signed this Dutch producer to Musical Freedom on the strength of a single called "Gecko." Earlier this summer, a remixed version of the track called "Gecko (Overdrive)" with Becky Hill on vocals topped the U.K. dance chart and the U.K. single chart. He's also remixed tracks for Martin Garrix ("Animals"), Robin Thicke ("Feel Good"), Disclosure ("Latch") and Coldplay ("A Sky Full of Stars").

Details: 9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 20. Maya Day + Night Club. 7333 E. Indian Plaza, Scottsdale. $15. mayaclubaz.com.

9/26: Cazzette

This Swedish electronic music duo (Alexander Björklund and Sebastian Furrer) are best known for the singles "Beam Me Up," from their 2012 debut, "Eject," and this year's "Sleepless." They've also appeared with Avicii, for whome they remixed "Sweet Dreams." Other remixes of note include Swedish House Mafia's "Save the World" and an unofficial mix of Adele's "Set Fire to the Rain." Their sound is a mixture of dubstep and house, which they call dubhouse.

Details: 9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 26. Maya Day + Night Club. 7333 E. Indian Plaza, Scottsdale. $15. mayaclubaz.com.

10/3: Peanut Butter Wolf

This California-based hip-hop DJ/producer is also the founder of Stones Throw Records. His 1999 release, "My Vinyl Weighs a Ton," was named in joking reference to Public Enemy's "Miuzi Weighs a Ton." All Music Guide hailed it as "one of the grooviest, funkiest underground records of the '90s." In 2009, he brought home some well-deserved buzz for an album called "45 Live," on which he made 7-inch edits of 18 different hip-hop tracks.

Details: 8:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 3. Crescent Ballroom, 308 N. Second Ave., Phoenix. $15. 602-716-2222, crescentphx.com.

10/9: Skrillex

Grammy-winning EDM sensation Skrillex tops a bill that also features A$AP Ferg, Branchez and David Heartbreak. A former hardcore singer for From First to Last, he reinvented himself as a DJ/producer with "My Name Is Skrillex," an EDM EP he released on MySpace. After releasing two more EPs -- "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" in late 2010 and "More Monsters and Sprites" in 2011 -- he was nominated for five Grammy Awards, including best new artist, winning three (best dance/electronica album, best dance recording and best remixed recording, non-classical) in 2012. He picked up three more Grammys in 2013. His most successful recording in the States is the double-platinum single "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites."

Details: 4:30 p.m.. Thursday, Oct. 9. Mesa Amphitheater, 263 N. Center St. $38.50; VIP $60. 480-644-2560, mesaamp.com.

10/14: SBTRKT

Aaron Jerome, a London-based producer, has remixed songs by Drake, M.I.A, Radiohead, Basement Jaxx, Mark Ronson and Underworld, in addition to performing live with his frequent collaborator Sampha. He explained why he prefers the name SBTRKT in an interview with Clash magazine: "The name SBTRKT is me taking myself away from that whole process. I'm not a social person, so having to talk to DJs to make them play a record is not something I want to do. It's more about giving them a record as an anonymous person and seeing whether they like it or not. If they play it, they play it." The "anonymous person" concept is reinforced live by the wearing of ceremonial masks.

10/16: Gramatik

This Slovenian EDM star plays an atmospheric blend of hip-hop, glitch, electro, old-school soul and dubstep. He started making beats at 13 and built a buzz through free file sharing. After signing to Pretty Lights Music, he moved to Brooklyn. Having launched his career in 2008 with an album of pure hip-hop beats that spent six months on Beatport.com's Top 100 chill out charts, he's managed to sell more than 100,000 tracks on Beatport, earning nominations for best chill out artist and best chill out track at the 2010 and 2012 Beatport Music Awards.

Details: 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 14. Marquee Theatre, 730 N. Mill Ave., Tempe. $32. 480-829-0607, luckymanonline.com.

10/22: Safe in Sound Festival

Relentless Beats presents the Safe In Sound Festival featuring Caked Up, Destroid, Flux Pavilion and Terravita. Caked Up is the Vegas-based DJ/producer duo of Oscar Wylde and Vegas Banger. Destroid is a collaboration between Canadian bass star Excision (one of several dubstep producers Korn brought in to reinvent their sound on "The Path of Totality"), Downlink and Pendulum drummer KJ Sawka. If you like the thought of live musicians doing bass and dubstep, you won't want to miss it. Flux Pavilion is a one-man electronic orchestra.

Details: 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 22. Marquee Theatre, 730 N. Mill Ave., Tempe. $58. 480-829-0607, luckymanonline.com.

10/30: Duke Dumont

A former protege of Switch, this British DJ/music producer first made a name for himself on the strength of remixes for Lily Allen ("The Fear"), Mystery Jets ("Two Doors Down") and Bat for Lashes ("Daniel"). He's best known for his single "Need U (100%)", which featured A*M*E and topped the U.K. singles chart in 2013. This year, the song was nominated for best dance recording at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards.

Details: 9 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30. Maya Day + Night Club. 7333 E. Indian Plaza, Scottsdale. $10. mayaclubaz.com.

11/11: Flying Lotus

Flying Lotus makes his home on the experimental, psychedelic fringe of EDM. In fact, his music has been known to conjure images of Flaming Lips jamming with Stereolab while getting stoned to old Pink Floyd and possibly some acid house. Released in 2012, "Until the Quiet Comes" brought home a perfect score from musicOMH.com, whose critic proclaimed it "at once iridescent and ambiguous, luminous and impenetrable: an elegantly conceived and executed album which may well come to be seen as Flying Lotus' finest work to date." He's touring with Thundercat, which makes this even more of an event.

Details: 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 11. Marquee Theatre, 730 N. Mill Ave., Tempe. $35. 480-829-0607, luckymanonline.com.