I have now acquired both versions of the Ultra Bra holy grail: the first and second editions of their limited-edition debut CD EP from 1995, Houkutusten kiihottava maku. I finally found copies of both versions at reasonable prices from on-line Finnish vendors. I had only seen the CD for sale in one Finnish record store in all my years of looking: at Popparienkeli in Helsinki, where it had the price of 100€. There might be a very good reason this store had it for sale (or else I am making an erroneous connection): the store was at the time co-owned by Ultra Bra bassist Tommi Saarikivi’s father. Tommi, however, wasn’t yet part of the band when their debut CD came out. The gentleman who kindly let me handle the CD to take a better look at it might well have been Tommi’s father. He was trusting to take it from behind the counter to let this foreign fan see it up close. I did not buy it as 100€ was indeed a bit too much I was willing to pay for it.

The material on this CD was rereleased on the group’s hits collections Sinä päivänä kun synnyin and Sinä päivänä kun synnyimme so I didn’t need it in order to hear its five tracks. I just wanted it as part of my Ultra Bra music collection. Here are my scans of the CD and cover art. I understand that the first pressing was in green at three hundred copies and the second pressing was in orange at two hundred copies. I will ask my UB bandmate friends to corroborate this.

Each CD provided a mailing address for Ultra Bra, giving the address Lapinlahdenkatu 12 A 11. I know this street. I wonder what member of Ultra Bra used to live there.

Front cover from first pressing with promo sticker

One of three hundred copies of the first pressing in green

Inside CD card is the same in both editions

Front cover from the second pressing without promo sticker

One of two hundred copies of the second pressing in orange