to me the attitude comes from dirtying up the whole sound. i dont mean full on distortion all the time, but some positive gain can bring life to even the most boring of sounds! for eg. a 909 closed hat - sounds really poncy in a track, but whack the gain on the mixing desk up and you've already got a little sparkle and thats just to start with. Also, i'm not a huge fan of panning.. mild panning on certain sounds can be nice (and its obviously needed to break up sounds in the stereo field) but hard panning can take away the *oomph* in a track. I find keeping all panning to within 20/25% of centre, gives my tracks a more upfront and in your face feel.