The album was received warmly on release with the Berkeley Gazette noting that songs like "Bass Strings" and "Section 43" "employ echo chambers, distortion, and other electronic embellishments to augment the unique versatility of sound mixing the Fish compulsively indulge in...the mood is essentially psychedelic, with the texture of smoky colored glass."
Uncut called it a "game changer" and said, "It isn’t easy to pinpoint singular, watershed moments in a culture’s evolution – in fact, it’s a messy business, heroes and hucksters alike laying claims to history. But it is safe to say that when Electric Music For The Mind And Body arrived via Vanguard on May 11, 1967 – six weeks ahead of the fabled Summer Of Love – the pop landscape had seen nothing of its kind."