Ataxia was a short-lived American experimental rock supergroup formed in 2004 by guitarist John Frusciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers), bassist Joe Lally (Fugazi) and drummer Josh Klinghoffer (Dot Hacker, The Bicycle Thief), who later succeeded Frusciante as the lead guitarist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Ataxia wrote and recorded songs for two weeks, and the material was separated into two albums: Automatic Writing (2004) and AW II (2007). The songs all feature a ground-bass line with the guitar overlaying different motifs and long developments. In March 2008, Lally described the band's writing process:

The songs would be initiated by me settling into a bass line. While the bass line was forming Josh would be playing and John would start to do something - with a few minutes, with a beat, I’d just keep going. There were no thoughts to it being the 'end product', a recording, but it led to that. The goal was just to see how quickly we could work music into place - I think it was a really interesting exercise for [Frusciante and Klinghoffer]. [...] The project really was just to be a show, not a recording, and no one would ever hear it again.

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