I read the Intro by Steve Reich in "Sound Unboand" and looked up the sampling pieces "It's Gonna Rain" as well as "Different Trains", to better comprehend the fascination with minimalist music, phase shifting and what can be achieved with looped sounds. Although I thought the accompanying visuals someone put together to match Steve Reich's first composition were much more moving than the music alone :
Steve Reich - It's Gonna Rain - Part 1
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I am trying to approach the music from the idea that what Reich was doing with taped sound- working with phase shifting and creating beats and "textured" compositions out of new repetitious materials using new technology (tape recordings)- had never been done before in 1965. Then I can appreciate the work a little more fully.

His 1988 piece, "Different Trains", which won him a Grammy, is more "mature" in it's artistic expression, which makes sense, as he would have been working for over 20 years at this point as a musician. The piece interweaves tape recordings of Holocaust survivors, people talking about train routes in America, taped recordings of trains, as well as music he wrote for violin and cello, to create another novel listening experience. I did like this better, as there seems to be a little more of a point, or "motivation" for the work than just the novelty of phase recording. Though the beginning sounds are in a key that sounds more foreboding, after the first third, the piece turns to more of a hopeful, upbeat tone for most of the song. It is interesting to hear what can be done with largely repetitious musical phrasing.