Do sharks make a noise?

I was working on some stuff for my upcoming Micronaut album today, and pondering the addition of audio to a song that doesn’t really have anything to do with the song, but acts to fill out the audio spectrum. I do this all the time, especially if I’m working all digitally, with only softsynths and samples to construct a tune. I’ll run a track that is just an unloaded mic pre with the gain cranked up for some background hiss throughout the song, since I’m one of those people (rarer these days) that started on tape, and thinks digital “just doesn’t sound right” all by its lonesome.

(Actually, a lot of people that don’t know any better agree with me, and you can tell by the prevalence of the words “phat” and “analog,” usually misapplied in conjunction.)

In any event, I like to just put little things here and there in the background of most of my songs. I don’t do it every time, but I’m a big fan of incidental noise, and if there aren’t enough incidents that happen naturally in any given track, I’ve been known to fake it.

To eventually get to the point, Adam has mentioned BT’s baby enough times to where I think it is actually something he actively thinks about on a semi-regular basis. It seems that BT’s recent album has baby noises on it. Now, I’ll boycott any album that has baby noises on it on general principle, of course, but when you’re using the quacks and mouth-farts of an infant as audio filler, are you, in actual fact, wearing a leather jacket while on water-skis?

I guess it’s really not that important. Either you can stand BT’s baby or you can’t, and that’s about all there is to that. But here’s the topic for the day: is taking the time to add, e.g., a track of hiss or little incidental noises to an otherwise sterile electronic song worth the effort, or rather a sign of latent Asburger’s Syndrome? If you, like me, feel it is worth it, what’s your favorite trick?