While Stereo Total opt for Gainsbourg as a dominant referent, Stereolab weave from a wider, more dispersed web of referents. Both lead singers being French, however, and both featuring prominently in the songwriting, Sterolab and Stereo Total both draw upon French referents. Whereas in their lyrics 'Lab cite Castoriadis and Marc Augé, 'Total namecheck Godard films and cover Gainsbourg songs. The extent to twhich Total rely on a solid relationship of ironic citation, combined with rhizomatic proliferation is clearly suggested in 2001’s album. Track 15 on the CD only plays after a silence of several minutes which follows track 14. What follows is the two key members, Françoise Cactus and Brezel Goring singing Karaoke-style versions of ‘Hello is it me you’re looking for’ by Lionel Richie, and ‘These boots are made for walking’ made famous by Nancy Sinatra. They choose to lay bare in this occluded supplement the general principle of relation to their source material.
