So I just had an MRI scan, which as you all know takes place in a large electromagnet over a period of about 20 minutes. They give you a panic button and a pair of headphones piping through music to compensate for the terrible sounds of the scanner. Thing is, my headphones were piping Heart FM, and the scanner was doing a very passable ambient power-industrial groove, replete with ticking backbeat. And so, reader, two minutes into the scan I took those headphones off and basked in Noise, each pitchshift or rhythmic modulation further delight in my miasmic trance. The scan operator, bemused, went along with it, requesting that I at least muffle the din, and turning Heart FM off. Silenced, O silenced!

I guess my question is: what are your favourite machine sounds? I could wax at length about a paint-mixing device from my time in a Brewers warehouse, but the stage is now yours.