Totally jealous of your late 90's setup. Regardless, see the bussing as a way to control rhythm/accentuate it. If you have a super rhythmic low end then I would try and control that via a bus together with the kick. This way the kick will compress down more and make that the prominent feature of the low end rhythm. Mind your attack (slower) and release (fast to mid ..or even slow if you want it to breath). Generally harder minimal music will benefit from bass/kick setups.