THE CASE AGAINST 8 - Blake Neely
Blake Neely delivers another delicate, gentile and complimentary score to a powerful documentary. Anyone who has seen the documentaries David McCullough: Painting with Words or Space Shuttle Columbia: Mission of Hope will quickly realise how Blake's subtle, yet pleasantly powerful underscore can capture your inner-feelings, releasing a personal and emotional reaction to the subject matter.
Synopsis
A behind-the-scenes look inside the case to overturn California's ban on same-sex marriage. Shot over five years, the film follows the unlikely team that took the first federal marriage equality lawsuit to the U.S. Supreme Court.
A topic that continues to be hotly debated amongst everyday American society, social media threads and in worldwide press publications is the ongoing legislation and controversy relating to same-sex marriage. The new HBO documentary ‘The Case Against 8’ highlights a 5 year court battle to overturn California’s Proposition 8 and follows a variety of interesting paths and stories; including an array of fascinating behind-the-scenes footage of David Boies and Theodore Olson during the Perry v. Schwarzenegger case.
To compliment this story is a heartfelt, warm and progressive piano based score by Blake Neely that builds with each track into a fully complimentary and balanced listening experience. There is nothing in the music to distract you from the topic at hand and like all good documentary scores you find yourself feeling the tension and emotional struggles of this historic legal case. Soft flowing strings, haunting melodic piano chords and intricate woodwind create a pulsating score that builds tension in an unobtrusive fashion.
Those familiar with Blake Neely’s music will realise he has an intuitive approach to fusing electronic sounds with the more traditional instruments (evident in his work for The Mentalist or The Arrow) and this is due to his economic usage of music. There is nothing over-powering at all just pure poignant cues at the right places with a constant pulse of a low piano, strumming guitar or an electronic beat running through the score. It is this musical frugality that makes the score hit the right chords with the listener and they are shown how a composer can have a whole-hearted desire to lead and compliment the picture.
It is very rare in today’s world of scoring to find music that resonates with your conscience and makes you contemplate events long after the images have left the screen and there is something within this album that reminds of listening to Basil Poledouris’ It’s My Party or My Life by John Barry for the first time. I do not think you will be disappointed with the music on this album and there is not one track out of the 27 that feels out of place; in fact I wish it had more tracks, as it is an incredibly pleasant stand-alone musical experience that is over far too soon.
Being familiar with Blake Neely’s repertoire I can only look forward to hearing more of his sensitive and progressive work on the upcoming series The Flash as he has shown himself to be a composer that feels the music and loves the excitement of any project he is involved with.
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