Once a month (perhaps soon to be twice a month), five hundred people gather at the Key Club for a party. If you're one of the lucky few, you know what takes place: the music is brilliant, the dancing is frenzied, the melodies are beautiful, the sound system is superb and the lights are laser-sharp. The result is what you would expect under those conditions: the crowd goes delightfully insane.

What is the driving force behind these wonderful, hedonistic, ritualistic romps? A rhythmic, sensual, colorful music/dance collective known as Cecilia Noël & the Wild Clams. Their tunes can be lovely, or they can punch you in the gut, but either way, they're delivered with enough power to light up the whole state and enough style to stock the shelves of a thousand Melrose Avenue boutiques.

The electric keyboards sparkle, the brass section wails, the percussionists knock your brains into jelly, and the five singers harmonize the hell out of the songs. With a jazz-funk bass that won't quit and lead guitar lines that blend soul with shred, the musical attack is over- whelming. Whoever does the arrangements for this band deserves, a Grammy or three.

Cecilia Noël has one of those VOICES that can tame wild animals or turn normal men into raving beasts. She could just stand there and make you weep with pleasure, but instead she puts on the kind of sexy performance that used to get nightclubs raided. Her stage presence is larger than life and twice as vibrant. She grabs you by the heart and teases your hips. Or perhaps it's the other way around.

Carmen Grillo (ex-Tower of Power) does the Guitar God routine on a couple numbers and it's tons of fun because he's such a tasteful player. Eric Jorgensen takes a trombone solo that makes you think the 'bone is a subtle and supple instrument -- no mean feat In itself, but doubly so since Noel is literally climbing up and down his body while he's doing it.

And the rhythm section is so in the pocket and on the groove that they end up controlling your pulse.

Look, if you're skeptical, here's the deal: you may think you don't like Latin music; or 14-, 15- or 16-piece bands; or pretty tunes with slammin' instrumentation; or songs half in English and half in Spanish. I once thought that way, but Cecilia Noël and the Wild Clams have changed all that.

They may be the only group that pulls off this stuff with a rock and roll sensibility, or they may be the advance guard for a whole new fad, like swing. Who knows and who cares - they're great and we've got 'em right here in LA.