what am i hearing in this track?

[supergroover]

there's obviously bags and bags of percussion here but it's all side-chained with that kick too make it sound hard as hell.

how does sidechaining the percussion make the kick sound louder? The percussion will be a little lower in volume during the kick (or attack + release time of the sidechain really). But if its too much it will probably sound annoying. So i dont think that really does the trick making it sound hard. But i can be mistaken here of course ;)

[stjohn]

the less sounds there are masking the kick... the more perceived loudness the kick will have!